Here’s an excerpt of an article by Alexia Tsotsis posted on TechCrunch:

 A new study by email software purveyor Xobni confirms what we bloggers know to be true, there’s actually no such thing as a day off in the Internet age (Want more visceral proof than an email study? Check out the timestamp of this post).

Information anxiety has pretty much put the kibosh on “time off” as two out of three Americans and Brits check their email outside of regular business hours (ha) and half of Americans email while on vacation (double ha).

For the entire article, click here.

A few stats that might (or might not) alarm you…

* 27% check email outside of regular working hours because they feel it is expected.

* 26% of Americans feel they can’t handle/overwhelmed by the number of emails they receive during vacation.

Is this you?

For the entire article, click here.

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Great post by Jonathan Spira entitled, “The Siren’s Call of Information Overload”

Here’s an excerpt:

Instead of multitasking what we actually do is task switching which is really a series of continuous interruptions. While this is done in the belief that one is being more efficient and getting more done, nothing could be farther from the truth. Each interruption comes with a penalty. Read more…

Here is the link.

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Here’s an article you’ll find interesting.

Here’s an excerpt:

The interruption epidemic is reaching a crisis point at some companies and shows no sign of slowing. Email volume is growing at a rate of 66% a year, according to the E-Policy Institute. More people are texting. More are using Facebook or Twitter for work.

“It’s worse than it’s ever been,” says Michelle Rupp, owner of NRG Seattle, an insurance brokerage with a staff of 12 who feel pounded by the avalanche of messaging. “It’s so hard to stay focused. Everything bings and bongs and tweets at you, and you don’t think.”

Yes, it is possible to blunt the interruption assault. But business leaders must go on the offensive in a realm most are oblivious to: interruption management.

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Check out this post… http://www.basexblog.com/2010/04/08/am-i-a-supertasker/

Here’s an excerpt from our friends at Basex, the research firm:

The study found that 97.5% of the subjects’ driving was significantly impaired while on the phone, meaning they took an average of 20% longer to hit the brakes when necessary. Word recall dropped 11% and math accuracy dropped 3%. Read more…

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The average worker today focuses on a task for about three minutes – that’s it. Then, they’re interrupted or they interrupt themselves. Multitasking is a bunch of hooey. You can’t do two things at once, just like you can’t be in two places at the same time. Yes, you can SHIFT from one task to another, but you can’t do two things at once. Alot of folks think they can… And then they give each task less than 100% attention. What does that say for productivity?

Here is a good post with some background research on the whole subject of multitasking:

http://blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/teachingblog/2010/03/04/multitasking-revisited/

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Here’s molecular biologist John Medina on the subject of multitasking while driving:

Until researchers started measuring the effects of cell phone distractions under controlled conditions, nobody had any idea how profoundly they can impair a driver. It’s like driving drunk … Cell-phone talkers are a half-second slower to hit the brakes in emergencies, slower to return to normal speed after an emergency, and more wild in their “following distance” behind the vehicle in front of them… More than 50% of the visual cues spotted by attentive drivers are missed by cell-phone talkers. Not surprisingly, they get in more wrecks than anyone except very drunk drivers.

(John Medina, Brain Rules)

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Here is a recent post by Cody Burke on the Basex blog…

50% of all searches fail in a manner that the person doing the searchrecognizes as a failure.  A far more significant problem is that 50% of the searches believed to have succeeded failed, but the person doing the search simply doesn’t realize it.  As a result, that person uses information that is at best out of date but more often incorrect or just not the right data.  When the “bad” information is then used in a document or communication, there is a cascading effect that further propagates the incorrect information.

To increase the odds that you will find what you are looking for, we’ve prepared five simple search tips that should result in better and more accurate results, regardless of where you are searching.

1.)   Boolean logic

Search engines typically use a form with a search box into which one types the search query.  To control the search results, use Boolean logic by typing AND or OR.  Many search engines including Google default to AND when processing search queries with two or more words.  To exclude words, use NOT (java NOT coffee, java -coffee).  For increased relevance, use NEAR (restaurants NEAR midtown Manhattan).

2.)   Options

Most search engines include options (on Google, these are found by clicking on Advanced Search).  Use options to narrow down the field you are searching.  Examples include file format (.ppt, .doc, .pdf, etc.) or Website (basex.com).

3.)   Search tools.

When it comes to search, one size does not fit all.  Use a variety of search tools beyond Google.  Try search visualization tools such as Cluuz and KartOO on the Web and KVisu for behind the firewall.

4.)   Meta search engines

A meta search engine runs several searches simultaneously.  Tools that may be helpful include Clusty and Dogpile.

5.)   Archived (out-of-date) materials or nonexistent Web sites

The Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive is useful for both older versions of Web pages and sites that have disappeared over time.

This  is also available online at http://bit.ly/4ASazG

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According to our friends a Basex, this is how knowledge workers spend their workdays:

 28% – Unnecessary interruptions and recovery time

25% – Creating Content/ Doing Work

20% – In Meetings

15% – Searching, both online and in paper

12% – What’s left… 

Deep thought: if you manage those email interruptions by shutting your inbox down, how much time will you reclaim?

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Here is a review of the tool, XOBNI by our friends at Basex…

http://www.basexblog.com/2009/07/16/in-the-briefing-room-xobni-plus/

Did you notice what XOBNI spells backwards?

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