From knowledge to distraction

do things that are easy to do, rather than things that are important or urgent (or both). It is easier to spend two hours a day "doing" e-mail than tackling an important problem.

Dealing with the deluge of messages, Nathan Zeldes told me, "is causing information workers everywhere loss of productive time, hampering their ability to concentrate, and creating stress and frustration." When it comes to understanding the issue of e-mail overload and interruptions, Intel is at the forefront. Zeldes says, "Senior management is aware of both issues, and we have plans in place to develop and implement solutions to reduce their impact."

Gloria Mark of the University of California at Irvine points out how complex and multifaceted the problem is. It's not just e-mail overload. She says, "It's the introduction of new technologies, it's downsizing and other economic factors that lead people to take on extra work duties." Mark's research found that a knowledge worker spends only 11 minutes on a given project before being interrupted and starting something else.

Is the problem too many e-mails, too many interruptions, too many tasks or too much stress? The lines between work and personal life are disappearing as work expands to fill a vacuum that previously allowed for relaxation and recreation. Now managers send e-mail when on holiday and from sports matches.

So what do we do? Extreme solutions, such as e-mail free days, are not the answer. For now, finding better and more appropriate ways of using the tools we employ every day will significantly help everyone.

[This article was excerpted from a forthcoming Basex report, Information Overload: We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us, which is available at no charge to KMWorld readers at www.basex.com/kmwinfo.]