If there’s one thing we all know, it is that there’s too much information these days about any subject – including Information Overload! To help you avoid the deluge, here are some resources I recommend as a way to start exploring this fascinating domain.
Contents
- Productivity Tips
- Key research articles
- Media articles
- Books of interest
- Interesting Web Sites and blogs
- Software tools worth checking
- Professional associations
Productivity Tips
- Check out My favorite Productivity Tips.
- Get new tips in convenient installments – Sign up to my Newsletter!
- Read past issues of our newsletter.
- Check this Insight Article about the Dark Side of Information Overload.
Key research articles
- Insight Articles by Nathan on this site.
- Infomania: why we can’t afford to ignore it any longer, N. Zeldes, D. Sward, S. Louchheim, First Monday, vol. 12, No. 8 (8/2007) (link)
>> This is a definitive compilation of the harmful effects of email overload and interruptions to the enterprise, including a comprehensive bibliography of supporting research. - T. Amabile, C.N. Hadley, and S.J. Kramer, 2002. “Creativity Under the Gun,” Special Issue on The Innovative Enterprise: Turning Ideas into Profits, Harvard Business Review, volume 80, number 8 (August), pp. 52–61.
>> A study that proves the inverse correlation of workday interruptions with creativity in the output of knowledge workers. - Basex, Inc., 2005. “The cost of not paying attention: How interruptions impact knowledge worker productivity”.
>>The original study that quantified the per annum cost of interruptions to the US economy at $588 billion (the number has climbed to close to a trillion since then). - V. Gonzalez and G. Mark, 2004. “Constant, Constant, Multi–tasking Craziness: Managing Multiple Working Spheres,” Proceedings of ACM CHI’04, pp. 113–120 (link).
>> A field study of knowledge workers’ daily routine that found we stop what we do due to interruptions every three minutes on average.
Media articles
- How to beat Information Overload by N. Zeldes, IEEE Spectrum, October 2009
- Blackberry Orphans, the Wall Street Journal, December 2006
- Death by Information Overload, Harvard Business Review, Sept. 2009
- More of Nathan in the Media
Books of interest
- The Activity Illusion, by Ian Price (Amazon)
- Overload! How Too Much Information is Hazardous to your Organization, by Jonathan B. Spira (Amazon)
- Finding Time: How Corporations, Individuals, and Families Can Benefit from New Work Practices, by Leslie Perlow (Amazon)
- Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, by Maggie Jackson (Amazon)
- Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload, by Mark Hurst (Amazon)
Interesting Web Sites and blogs
- The Information Overload Resource Center – a catalog of IO resources, curated by the Information Overload Research Group
- Interruptions in Human-Computer Interaction – a massive collection of literature, people and links about the Interruptions part of Information Overload.
- Email Overload Solutions – a web site brimming with information and practical resources.
Software tools worth checking
- ClearContext IMS – a powerful Outlook add-on for personal Inbox prioritization, and more.
- Seriosity Attent – an experimental system for introducing an “attention economy” to email
- Gmail Priority Inbox – a Gmail feature that prioritizes your incoming mail.
- Knowmail – a state of the art personal assistant for effective email handling.
- AwayFind – a tool that allows you to read email less frequently and still be reachable.
Professional associations
- The Information Overload Research Group (IORG), co-founded by myself and others in 2008 to promote cooperation among IO professionals and reduce information pollution.
