Jonathan Spira, Author of Overload! How Too Much Information Is Hazardous to Your Organization

Too much information, running through my brain. Too  much information, driving me insane.

The Police

In his book, Overload! How Too Much Information Is Hazardous to Your Organization,  Jonathan Spira describes how information, which used to be the cornerstone of productivity, is fast becoming it’s death knell. To make this blog post in the spirit of brevity, I will attempt to describe his presentation at the New York chapter of the Public Relations Society in under two hundred words.

We are fed hundreds of emails, receive numerous voicemails, texts, IMs, tweets, posts every day. The impact of this overload is a decline in productivity and no time left to get work done resulting in the U.S. economy to lose one trillion dollars in productivity each year.

What causes information overload?

– Increase in content creation

– Ubiquitous connectivity

– More ways for getting information

Information overload results in:

– Lower productivity levels

– Lower concentration levels

– Lower innovation levels

– Lower comprehension levels

You can become more productive by:

– Read your incoming email messages carefully

– Read your outbound email messages carefully

– Think carefully when addressing email

– Learn how to use search better such as more specific and better search results

You can follow Jonathan Spira on Twitter @jonathanspira.

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