Overcoming Information Overload

1. Overcoming Information Overload Anne Pembertonpembertona@uncw.edu

2. "A weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in 17th century England." R.S.Wurman, Information Anxiety

3. Information Overload … • Having so much information available that you either cannot assimilate it all or it feels too overwhelming to take any of it in

4. Information Overload • Overwhelmed by the amount of information • Don’t understand the available information • Desperate to know if certain information exists • Don’t know where to find information • Unable to access information

5. Research on IO • Once workers are interrupted by an email it takes an average of 24 minutes to return to the suspended task • 2,300 employees judged nearly one third of the emails they receive to be unnecessary, but spend two hours a day processing them • http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/sep/24/information-overload

6. Info Overload Results In … • Anxiety / Stress • Delay in Decision Making • Lack of Job Satisfaction • Waste of Time • Working Longer Hours

7. My Information Overload • E-mails (urgency/time of sender) • Mail • Voice mails • Meetings • Newspaper/News • Research for others • Research for me • Websites

8. Solutions • Organizational • Individual • Related to research

9. Acceptance • Thomas Young (1773 – 1829) • English scientist, researcher, physician, and polymath • “Last person to know it all”

10. Organizational Suggestions • Discuss “best practices” for your department: • What “method” will you use for communication? • E-mail? • Short messages: EOM (End of Message) • Encourage brief messages (no more than 5 sentences) • Use specific subject lines (not “FYI” or “tomorrow”) • Resist replying to all • Avoid personal e-mails to colleagues on work e-mail • SharePoint? Blogs/wikis? • File Sharing • Establish best practices for file naming (mins.docx vs. Curriculum Committee Minutes 10-12-09.docx)

11. Organizational Continued • Listservs: • No need to maintain contact lists individually • Practice good etiquette (keep the personal out of professional) • Set limits for yourself and respect other people’s limits • You cannot be available 24/7 • Don’t expect others to be either • Do not have meetings without agendas, moderators, or a minute taker

12. Individual Suggestions • Organize your work space • Everything has a “home” • File cabinet with folders • Book case for books • You use it, you put it back • Set up time each week (15 minutes on Fridays) to weed, recycle, organize, clean, etc. • You do NOT need to print everything • You do NOT need to keep everything • You do NOT need to read everything

13. Keeping Information • Ask these questions: • Can I get this info elsewhere if I do need it? • Is this something I really need? How will it help me? • Now that I've read it and understand it, do I need to keep it? • If I do keep it, where can I put it so that it is easily accessible and I don’t have to hunt for it?

14. E-mail • How many accounts do you need? • One personal and one professional (?) • Do not leave inbox open all day • Determine specific times that you will check e-mail • E-mail signature that reads “I answer e-mail at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m. If you need a quicker response, please call.” • Act on message when you get it (Respond, delete, file)

15. E-mail Continued • If you have to keep messages, create folders • Useful names • Once a week or month weed (put this on your calendar) • Don’t save everything – be realistic • Modify junk folders in your e-mail • http://www.uncw.edu/itsd/services/communication/SPAM.html • Good gauge – mailbox size • http://www.uncw.edu/itsd/help/instructions/ManageYourEmail.html • Store large files on SAMMY/TIMMY - not in your e-mail • http://www.uncw.edu/itsd/help/instructions/Sammy.html

16. Phone Calls • Do not answer phone calls from unrecognized numbers (unless it is your job to answer the phone) • Do not answer phone if you are concentrating on something (they can leave a VM) • Tools: • http://www.grandcentral.com/ • http://www.simulscribe.com/ • http://jott.com/default.aspx

17. Technology • Is your “Crackberry" stressing you out? • Take a day off! • Leave the technology at work (don’t check e-mail at home) • What are you REALLY missing?

18. Taming the Web: RSS • RDF Site Summary / Rich Site Summary / Really Simple Syndication • RSS is a standard XML format for delivering content that changes on a regular basis • Content is delivered in small chunks, generally a synopsis, preview, or headline

19. RSS • Using a special program called a "feed reader" or "RSS aggregator", you can easily track any type of information that changes on a daily or even hourly basis from multiple sites • Lets you know when your favorite websites have been updated • Through your e-mail • Through the web • Through “aggregators” like Bloglines

20. Using RSS • Look for small, orange icons (RSS or XML) • Most common: Use a “reader” (like bloglines.com or Google Reader) • Can also use in your e-mail

21. Other Tools • http://www.nextfeeds.com/ • http://www.feeddemon.com/ • http://readitlaterlist.com/ • http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ • Firefox bookmark add-ons

22. Blogs & Wikis • Let someone else do the work! Great for sharing information • BlogsExample: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/ • Search for blogs: http://blogsearch.google.com/ • WikisExample: http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page • Search for wikis: http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Groupware/Wiki/

23. Research • I happen to know some folks who can help …

24. Research: Alerting Services • Let’s you know (alerts you) about new materials • Books and articles • Most databases • TOC (Table of Contents) Service through IngentaConnect

25. Alerting Services • "New book" alerts (will e-mail you when new books arrive) • Go to library website (http://library.uncw.edu) • Click on “My Library Account” • Click on “Library Home” at top, right • Click on “Search the Catalog” • Perform a search • Click on gray box (“Save as preferred search”) • Click on the “Patron Record” button at the top (blue box) • Click on the “Preferred Searches” button on right (blue box) • Click the box next to your search terms in the column labeled “Mark for Email” • Click on “Update List” (blue box)

26. Other Tools Keeping Your Citations Organized • Bibliographic Management Tools • EndNote or EndNote Web • Zotero • Library Toolbar • http://library.uncw.edu/web/research/tools.html

27. Personal Life • Get rid of junk mail (save you and save a tree!) • http://www.stopjunkmail.org/ • Can you keep work separate from personal? • Disconnect from technology • Social Networking: • Can’t keep up on Facebook? • Create lists (e.g. Important People) • Do you really need 500 friends? Really? • http://www.digsby.com/ (brings all your contacts together in one place)

28. More Resources on IO • “Death by Information Overload” (article by Paul Hemp in Harvard Business Review, September 2009) • http://www.managingio.com/ • http://www.iorgforum.org/ • http://communicationoverload.com/ • http://www.slaw.ca/2007/06/26/combating-information-overload/ • http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_90.htm • http://www.xerox.com/information-overload/enus.html Anne Pemberton, Instructional Services Coordinator, RL pembertona@uncw.edu