Information Overload - follow our Tips series on Twitter

It seems somewhat ironic that there is an overload of information on the topic of information overload.  So to play our part in making the subject manageable, we take the best advice we find and Tweet it via our Unified Inbox Twitter account.  Please accept our invitation to follow us and keep up-to-date as we post new tweets in our Tips series.

Listed below are some of our more recent tweets. If you find one here that you'd like to share - then please click on the Tips link and re-tweet.

 

Tip 18: "Nagless Reminders — Get the Recipient to Respond On Time" http://cot.ag/gzRqRC Simple yet effective idea.

Tip 17: "10 Coaching Tips for Email Overload" http://cot.ag/f2Ysy 8 Check out tip number 3. 

Tip 16: "Managers...Email Distraction" http://cot.ag/eAgh83 Our fav: what's the worst that will happen if you deleted it?

Tip 15: "Smart Email Management – from Holiday Inbox to Zero Inbox" http://cot.ag/ih9QcD Get that backlog sorted 

Tip 14: Feeling Disorganized? Email Overload? http://cot.ag/hIEXqD Advice put into action.

Tip 13: "Email Overload – How To Battle It And Win" http://cot.ag/f7VN35 Focuses on planning time usage.

Tip 12: "All those tweets, apps, updates may drain brain" http://cot.ag/hrjTQ0 Indeed - something to watch out for.

Tip 11: "Email overload - using alternative communications options" http://cot.ag/fa5tYz What are the alternative options?

Tip 10: "Middle-aged brains and information overload" http://cot.ag/eyqnax Thank goodness! :)

Tip 9: "There is no such thing as email overload" http://cot.ag/h2MqLW An alternative viewpoint.

Tip 8: "How To Get Yourself Out From Huge Information Overload" http://cot.ag/iiuI4C

Tip 7: "Will the world end if you close Outlook?" http://cot.ag/dMyp1T Sound advice. 

Tip 6: "Coping with 'information overload' http://cot.ag/hX0xX8 List of practical advice 

Tip 5: "Email overload - unsubscribe to save yourself" http://cot.ag/g6NFq6.

Tip 4: "The Two Round Rule" http://cot.ag/ifVIoh Good solid advice for keeping email flood at bay.

Tip 3: "Information overload can kill family time" http://cot.ag/eRgxv4. Any family rules you want to share with us?

Tip 2: "Email Overload: The vacation return" http://cot.ag/gQIE67 Anyone else had it this easy?

Tip 1: "11 Tips for Dealing With Email Overload" http://bit.ly/f0fHMX Which work best?

In praise of assistants!

 

"virtual or real"

April 27th is Administrative Professionals Day in New Zealand.  On this day businesses are asked to value the support that administrators give.  

While many thought that with the advent of technology assistants days would be numbered, it seems that with this changing technology came a flood of information and subsequently information overload.  It could be said that senior business people now need information gatekeepers more than any time in the past.

(As an aside: the costs of information overload have been estimated at $997 billion in the United States.) 

The big change however is that the assistant no longer needs to sit at a desk at the managers door.  Technology means that an assistant can be anywhere in the world and still do the work required of them.

One of the popularists of virtual assistants is Tim Ferriss. In his book The 4-hour work week he says

“What if you never had to check e-mail again?

If you could hire someone else to be spend countless hours in your inbox instead of you?

This isn’t pure fantasy. For the last 12 months, I’ve experimented with removing myself from the inbox entirely by training other people to behave like me. Not to imitate me, but to think like me.”  

You can read the his blog for the full article on his the ways in which he used virtual assistants as the method for removing information overload from his life.

Now, while Tim is seen as one of the most adventurous in terms of how much of his life and business he outsources (he once outsourced the process of getting a girlfriend to his virtual assistants), the ideas he puts forth are increasingly been taken up by entrepreneurs and business people around the world.

Much of this thinking was apparent to the founders of Unified Inbox when they started development.  The assistants they worked with were in different countries and Unified Inbox had to be the tool that allowed these assistants to work closely on the business.   For more information on how managers and assistants are using Unified Inbox see our showcase.

 

The way we work has shifted

"Today's workforce can operate from virtually anywhere: at a company or home office, at a coffee shop or convention center, in the air or on the road"

A just published survey by Skype has some interesting figures about where work is currently taking place.  For those that believe remote or tele-working is only a small part of the modern business world, the figures may surprise.

• 62% of businesses have remote workers.  34% of employees work away from the office

This insight has relevance in showing that a remote worker is not just one who works from home but one who works anywhere that is not the standard work-station.

• in addition, 67% of businesses now allow workers to use their own technology in the office.

What then has changed that allows these dramatic shifts in the way we work?  Cloud computing must surely be the big technology driver - as a worker may be anywhere, on any device to access their work information.  The benefits exist for both workplace and worker.

For those that have experienced remote working (whether it be at home or elsewhere in the office) what do you consider the benefits to be?

Brain freeze - what it is and how to avoid it.

 “With too much information, people’s decisions make less and less sense.”

Newsweek magazine published an article recently that looked at the effect of attempting to absorb too much information.  

The study created a problem that overtaxed people's decision making abilities. Participants considered an incredibly complex array of information in order to solve the problem set.  As the information provided increased, even experts become anxious and mentally exhausted. In fact, the more information they try to absorb, the fewer of the desired items they got and the more they overpaid or made critical errors.

At the same time as the participants were attempting to solve the set problem, the researchers were scanning their brain activity. They found that as the information load increased, so did activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region behind the forehead that is responsible for decision making and control of emotions. However as the researchers gave the participants more and more information, activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex suddenly fell off, as if a circuit breaker had popped. 

In effect  - information overload or brain freeze - is a very real cognitive issue.

For Unified Inbox, we are looking at ways to make information more manageable and less prone to overload.  Many of the smart services contained within Unified Inbox are aimed squarely at freeing people from the tyranny of an overwhelming message stream.

Inbox Management - "do unto others..."

"...as you would have others do unto you."

When reading the literature on Inbox Management, you will find much of the focus is on how to manage the incoming stream of messages.  But there is another way of looking at it.  

What good email practices can you put in place that will decrease the volume of email in other peoples mailboxes?

• It has been said the email begets email.  A poorly thought out email which requires the recipient to send a reply to clarify what was said - has created a message in your inbox that needn't have been there.  That extra moment of attention before you press send, could be several less minutes than required to fix a mis-understanding later.

• How many people really need to be copied on that message?  You are more likely to get a quality response from a personally directed email, than from a group email.  Consider carefully the response you want from every person you address an email too.  After-all they probably don't want their inboxes cluttered, anymore than you do.
• Would a phone call or personal visit be a better option here?  Sometimes (usually after the 2nd exchange of messages on the subject) you really just need to talk to the person.  If only 7% of our communication is thought to be from the words we use, and you're finding that understanding is not taking place in email then it could be time to get that other 93% of communication involved.

• Use a clear subject line.  If you're being taught to scan your inbox looking for important emails, no doubt the people you send to are as well.  Make it easy for them.

At Unified Inbox (click here for release information) we believe not only in using the best technology for the job but also in getting the best training on using those tools.