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April 2009
Friends,
 I’m excited to send you the first issue of this newsletter. The plan
is to make this a pleasant read, combining news, interesting observations, useful tools and
snapshots from my various fields of interest. The main focus will be on Work – knowledge worker
effectiveness, technology startups, information overload, and so forth; and complementing this, a
varied smattering of hobbies, books, and other non-work stuff. There are three possibilities: you may find this newsletter interesting; you may find it
dull; or you may find it hopeless. If the first,
Forward
it to your friends; if the second,
tell me how I can improve it to serve you better; if it’s hopeless, there’s an unsubscribe link
at the end...
Enjoy!
In this issue
News: IORG Online event
Reflection: Is Info Overload a matter
of Staffing?
Toolbox: ClearContext Professional
What's New
IORG Online event coming soon
The Information Overload Research Group (IORG)
will hold an online event on April 27 at 12:30 PM EDT, with the theme Information Overload:
Impact on the Organization. In addition to hearing lectures by accomplished researchers,
attendees will be able to chat with each other and participate in the discussion.
To register to
the event,
click here.
Observations, reflections and opinions
Is
Info Overload a matter of Staffing?
Here's a thought that's been bothering me for a while:
suppose we did solve the problem of the useless messages (yeah, I wish) - would the Email Overload
nightmare be over?
I have a nagging suspicion that it wouldn't. True, when a manager
receives 100-300 messages each day, getting rid of the many totally useless ones would seem a big
step; but as one CIO pointed out to me, deleting the fluff takes maybe half an hour daily; it's fast
going. The problem, he said, is that the remaining messages, around 40 a day, each require him to
make an intelligent decision - and no one can make that many considered decisions in a day with the
required quality.
Which raises the question of why he had to make so many; and that
has to do with staffing paradigms, not with email overload. Is it possible that we're overloading
our managers and engineers with tasks and responsibilities? Should we have more people, or assign
them in different ways?
What do you think?
Let me know!
From the Toolbox
ClearContext Professional 
If you use Microsoft Outlook, there are a number of add-ons that try to
help you organize and manage the flood of incoming email beyond Outlook's built-in capabilities;
we'll be discussing these over the next issues.
This month I introduce a tool I really like, made by a San Francisco based startup that I've been
following with interest for some time. In its current version ClearContext it quite comprehensive:
it analyzes your incoming mail, it displays, files and sorts it by various criteria, organizes it by
project along with tasks, appointments and related documents, and lots more. In fact so much that I
think every user is likely to find some features they like and focus on those. My own favorite
features are the ones that help you avoid using the Inbox as a "To Do list": you can defer messages
- tell them to disappear and show up again on a date you need them on; you can convert messages to
tasks or appointments with a click; you can ask to be reminded if you don't receive a timely
response to an email you send (instead of copying yourself!)... Oh, and there's a Do Not Disturb
button - to shut down incoming mail alerts for a preset time, allowing you to focus and think (a
feature I had been wanting for years).
I've seen people who swear by this tool and others who differed - but it's definitely worth your
time to Check it out (there's a free trial) and see for yourself. Just be sure to at least
try the more powerful Pro version. |
Things to Do
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Visit our web site -
Forward to a friend -
Give feedback -
Get Coffee -
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Read previous issues
Recently blogged
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Gotcha, Google translator!
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Confused calendar of E71
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Roman technology rocks!
Snapshots of Ingenuity
The Alku slide rule looks boring enough, unil you realize its  surprising secret, which proves that “Engineering is the
art of making what you want from things you can get”.
[Read more]
The Monthly Factoid
When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, the prevailing plan was to use it to transmit
music from concert halls to multiple listeners - one to many broadcast.
When Guglielmo Marconi
invented wireless radio, it was envisioned as a means to transmit telegrams - one to one.
As we
know, the exact reverse happened.
The lesson: never jump to conclusions about the
future impact of new technology!
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