"What Productivity Studies Really Show" By Gina Trapani

1-Sentence Summary*

"The longer I do this, the more I suspect that a good part of the "information overload" story is a myth cooked up by folks who don’t know how to use the internet well in order to demonize something they don’t understand."

It is commonly accepted that so called information overload ruins our life and seems to be a contagious malady. To save ourselves we should compartmentalize our time and attention by following favorite time and information management techniques.

However, since technology produces information abundantly, certainly we could better use smart applications that help us with filtering, spotlighting and contextualizing information that we are interested in.

Wealth of information is an asset not an impediment. Too much effort and attention is given to studying the so called negative impact of information wealth and not enough attention is spend on technologies capable to intelligently mine the information wealth.

Productivity is a very personal issue and with a bit of ingenuity each of us can take advantage of information wealth…

 * 1-Sentence Summary is done using Context Organizer 

 "Google De-Automates Addition of Gmail Contacts" By: Thomas Claburn

1-Sentence Summary*

In truth, Google‘s decision to change the way Gmail gathers contacts isn’t so much a repudiation of automation as an acknowledgment that automation must be balanced by human oversight.

By far having Suggested Contacts where Gmail puts its auto-created addresses gives users back the control over their address book. By default, Suggested Contacts that you email regularly are automatically added to My Contacts. And if you do not like this automated step you can still choose to disable usage-based addition of contacts to My Contacts. Once you do this, no matter how many times you email an auto-added email address it won’t be moved to My Contacts.

With these changes it will be much easier to clean up the address book and make it organized and functional. This is yet another step towards reducing information overload.

* 1-Sentence Summary is done using Context Organizer

 "Information overload solutions from a conference dedicated to the topic" By: Jared Goralnick

I’m overwhelmed with ideas from the Information Overload conference this week.  In an effort to reflect, I’ve listed some of the major stats and themes discussed for managing too much stuff.

 That’s according to research firm Basex, which chose "information overload" as its 2008 "Problem of the Year."

"How to Deal with Information Overload: Part I"  by: Damon Hedman

1-Sentence Summary*

 "There is more information online than any one person can ever consume, and it’s only going to get worse."

Damon rightly points out that whenever we search for information we find far too many links and that makes our choices difficult. His sensible advice is: “Only read information that is relevant to the problem at hand.” Isn’t this the goal and ambition of all Internet users?

 * 1-Sentence Summary is done using Context Organizer