Information is a valuable asset. Technological advances have had a positive impact on communication. Now, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen escalated use of digital tools fast becoming our new normal.
We receive numerous phone calls, reply to a bunch of e-mails and attend endless meetings daily. A typical office day can hand you an excessive amount of information for you to process. It is unavoidable.
All this information has a bad side to it. “Infobesity” can affect your well-being and impact your performance. At the management level, it can affect the organisation’s ability to recognise and retain talent as well as uphold the brand reputation.
In other words, information overload affects employees at a personal level, departments and the company or organisation as a whole.
Bertram Gross, a Professor of Political Science in 1964 published: “Information overload occurs when the amount of input to a system exceeds its processing capacity. Decision-makers have fairly limited cognitive processing capacity. Consequently, when information overload occurs, it is likely that a reduction in decision quality will occur.”
As employees continue to swim in information, it is becoming harder to sieve what is relevant from what is misleading and irrelevant.
When there is too much information shared at the workplace, easily accessible and automatically delivered to our electronic devices, there is usually not enough time to process it all. Worst case is when the information is largely misaligned to the vision, mission and objectives of the workplace.
Why are we whining about it?
Information overload is one of the causes of stress, anxiety, insomnia and to some extent, burn out. Your performance and productivity will definitely take a nosedive when your day comprises of overwhelming phone calls, emails and meetings.
Studies by Microsoft researchers have indicated that we are normally distracted almost every three minutes and five seconds. These distractions usually emanate from our notifications from different media platforms.
It is further indicated that we take averagely 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus the attention on the task at hand. If we are constantly interrupted and take too long to refocus means we spend almost 24 minutes trying to process our distractions. What this translates to is slowed productivity clouded ability to make good decisions. Effective decision making is crucial for any company to thrive. There is a need for companies to find a balance between old ways of enhancing productivity and modern technology to sieve what is relevant and actionable from what is not.
Information gathering has to be strategic and timed
In the modern fast-paced workplace, we cannot afford to spend time exploring leads to see what they will unveil. We are in an era where information floodgates are open, digital content is far-reaching, with almost free distribution channels, and non-existent barriers.
Think about it, too much information may lower your ability to think. We can just Google everything, right? If you have to do some background research, give your information gathering session a time limitation. Without a strategy, you will spend unnecessarily too much time on research and nothing to show for it at the end of the day.
culture change will do some good
Sometimes, a collective change in behaviour will make information flow not so overwhelming. We have all been victims of receiving the “Reply to All” e-mails on matters that do not really concern us.
Normally, we are given options but some of us are quick to hit the ‘Send’ button without reconsideration. For e-mail to be effective, the message needs to be taken seriously and delivered to that right people. If the e-mailing behaviour is full of the unnecessary one-size-fits-all content, it is time for change to a more productive e-mail behaviour.
Even if you may want to maintain visibility, it will be more effective and actionable when your e-mails only get to the concerned parties. And who knows, once you educate your colleagues about it, you may actually turn to a reduced burden of information.
Way forward for organisations
One way organisations can tackle information overload is by working to contain it.
To reduce the time wasted on distractions, organisations can provide a central repository where communications and file sharing can be done without flooding the employees’ inbox. Relevance is of paramount importance.
Such a digital platform needs regular updating with exciting and compelling information. It can provide a structured flow of knowledge and get rid of the disorganisation that can emanate from misguided emailing.
