Managing Information Overload

.....Managing Information Overload, by Donna Deeprose

ASSESSMENT:

1)	Your e-mail in-box is so full you can't remember what the earliest messages were all about. What should you do?

	Put everything older than a few days into another folder.
	Delete everything that didn't come from your boss.
	Read them again just in case you missed something important.

2)	Which problem is more likely to slow you down as you do your work?

	Not being able to locate the information you need.
	Not having the information you need.
	Having so much information it's hard to choose what's most important.

3)	You're on vacation, but back at the office your phone keeps ringing. What should you do?

	Let the voice mail messages pile up until your mailbox is full.
	Leave an outgoing message telling people who to contact in your absence.
	Call in regularly to pick up your messages.

4)	You're in a meeting and your beeper just went off for the third time. What should you do?

	Turn it off and pick up the messages later.
	Ignore it if it's not from your boss.
	Excuse yourself and go out and answer it.

5)	When you do a web search, what do you do?

	Wade through a lot of irrelevant data before you find what you want.
	Try one search before you give up and turn the task over to your neighbor's cyber-savvy teenager.
	Use several search engines to collect a wealth of information.

6)	You're on the circulation list for a bunch of publications. What do you do with the publications?

	Stack them for future perusal.
	Sign your name and pass them on, mostly unread.
	Read them all.

7)	You are listening to a day's worth of voice mail. What do you do?

	Push the save button for each message you are not sure how to answer.
	Delete each message not related to projects you are working on now.
	Return every call.

8)	You've got a deadline looming, but the "You've got mail" signal on your computer keeping interrupting you. What should you do?

	Turn it off and let all e-mail go to your in-box.
	Read messages from your boss and delete most of the rest.
	Read each message, take immediate action when you can, and save everything in categories.

9)	The in-box on your desk is dangerously full. What should you do?

	Skim through it to pick out anything overdue and make a neat pile of the rest on your sideboard beside the other piles.
	Skim through it for critical things and toss the rest in the waste basket.
	Take the time to read and file each item.

10)

Your boss asks for some industry facts and figures. You know you've seen them somewhere in the past couple of months. What should you do?

	Spend a couple of hours searching the piles on your desk, your e-mail in-box and old voice-mail messages.
	Call someone you know who keeps track of such things.
	Send your boss an inch-thick pile of data you've collected.

Are you swamped by voice mail? Smothered by e-mail? Take our quiz to identify your style of handling information overload and get some tips, tailored to your style, for managing it better. Three categories will be rated. The one with the highest rating reflects your predominant style.

Savers...	...stack it up. They make piles of paper on their desk and virtual piles of files and messages in their computers and phones.
Purgers...	...toss it away. The delete button and waste basket are their tools of choice.
Information Junkies...	...thrive on it. They study it, add to it, pass it on, and know where to find more.

For the 10 situations that follow, choose the approach that's closest to how you would behave.

Start Assessment.

Your answer...