Transcript Slide 1

Overcoming Information
Overload
Anne Pemberton
[email protected]
"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
Information Overload …
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Having so much
information
available that you
either cannot
assimilate it all or
it feels too
overwhelming to
take any of it in
Information Overload
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Overwhelmed by the amount of information
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Don’t understand the available information
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Desperate to know if certain information exists
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Don’t know where to find information
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Unable to access information
Research on IO
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Once workers are interrupted by an email it takes an
average of 24 minutes to return to the suspended
task
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2,300 employees judged nearly one third of the
emails they receive to be unnecessary, but spend
two hours a day processing them
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/sep
/24/information-overload
Info Overload Results In …
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Anxiety / Stress
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Delay in Decision Making
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Lack of Job Satisfaction
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Waste of Time
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Working Longer Hours
My Information Overload
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E-mails (urgency/time of sender)
Mail
Voice mails
Meetings
Newspaper/News
Research for others
Research for me
Websites
Solutions
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Organizational
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Individual
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Related to research
Acceptance
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Thomas Young
(1773 – 1829)
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English scientist,
researcher, physician,
and polymath
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“Last person to know
it all”
Organizational Suggestions
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Discuss “best practices” for your department:
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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)
Organizational Continued
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Listservs:
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Set limits for yourself and respect other
people’s limits
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No need to maintain contact lists individually
Practice good etiquette (keep the personal out of
professional)
You cannot be available 24/7
Don’t expect others to be either
Do not have meetings without agendas,
moderators, or a minute taker
Individual Suggestions
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Organize your work space
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Everything has a “home”
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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
Keeping Information
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Ask these questions:
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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?
E-mail
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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 email
 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)
E-mail Continued
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If you have to keep messages, create folders
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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
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Store large files on SAMMY/TIMMY - not in your e-mail
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http://www.uncw.edu/itsd/help/instructions/Sammy.html
Phone Calls
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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
Technology
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Is your “Crackberry" stressing you out?
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Take a day off!
Leave the technology at work (don’t check e-mail
at home)
What are you REALLY missing?
Taming the Web: RSS
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RDF Site Summary / Rich Site Summary /
Really Simple Syndication
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RSS is a standard XML format for delivering
content that changes on a regular basis
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Content is delivered in small chunks,
generally a synopsis, preview, or headline
RSS
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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
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Lets you know when your favorite websites have
been updated
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Through your e-mail
Through the web
Through “aggregators” like Bloglines
Using RSS
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Look for small,
orange icons (RSS
or XML)
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Most common:
Use a “reader”
(like bloglines.com
or Google Reader)
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Can also use in your
e-mail
Other Tools
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http://www.nextfeeds.com/
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http://www.feeddemon.com/
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http://readitlaterlist.com/
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http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
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Firefox bookmark add-ons
Blogs & Wikis
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Let someone else do the work! Great for sharing
information
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Blogs
Example: http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/
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Search for blogs: http://blogsearch.google.com/
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Wikis
Example:
http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
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Search for wikis:
http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Groupwar
e/Wiki/
Research
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I happen to know some folks who can help …
Research: Alerting Services
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Let’s you know
(alerts you) about new
materials
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Books and articles
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Most databases
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TOC (Table of Contents)
Service through
IngentaConnect
Alerting Services
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"New book" alerts
(will e-mail you when new books arrive)
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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)
Keeping Your Citations Organized
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Bibliographic Management Tools
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EndNote or EndNote Web
Zotero
Other Tools
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Library Toolbar
http://library.uncw.edu/web/research/tools.ht
ml
Personal Life
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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:
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Can’t keep up on Facebook?
 Create lists (e.g. Important People)
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Do you really need 500 friends? Really?
http://www.digsby.com/ (brings all your contacts
together in one place)
More Resources on IO
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“Death by Information Overload” (article by Paul Hemp in
Harvard Business Review, September 2009)
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http://www.managingio.com/
http://www.iorgforum.org/
http://communicationoverload.com/
http://www.slaw.ca/2007/06/26/combating-informationoverload/
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_90.htm
http://www.xerox.com/information-overload/enus.html
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Anne Pemberton, Instructional Services Coordinator, RL [email protected]