Information Overload

Every day, we receive a barrage of emails that we complain about, yet at the same time can't live without.

In a span of 2 hours, it is possible for a person to get 40 new emails in their inbox, most of which are irrelevant to him or her.

Here's an article about our email use and the information overload that we experience.

A Marketplace for Attention

The productivity of information workers is jeopardized by too much e–mail.

Companies are beginning to investigate the financial costs associated with information overload. Research from one Fortune 50 company estimated the cost of information overload at US$1 billion annually based on lost work time and reduced employee efficiency (Zeldes, et al., 2007). This estimate did not include additional costs associated with reduced work quality, job satisfaction and innovation. The estimated cost of information overload for the larger economy is stunning — US$588 billion annually (Basex Report, 2006).

Here's another one:

Infomania

A typical Intel knowledge worker receives 50–100 work–related e–mail messages each day

On average, knowledge workers can expect three minutes of uninterrupted work on any task

On average, a major interruption occurs every 11 minutes [24], the time to return to an interrupted task is 25 minutes [25], many incoming e–mail messages are reacted to within seconds of arrival [26] (implying constant e–mail monitoring to the detriment of concentration on the task at hand), and recovery from e–mail distraction takes 64 seconds [27]. It is thus fair, yet sad, to say that many knowledge workers have almost no uninterrupted work time – time that is essential to enabling creativity, innovation or serious problem solving [28].