A report released earlier this year from the Global Information Industry Center at the University of California, San Diego confirms that we are swimming, perhaps even drowning in information.  It gives estimates of what we receive from a variety of sources, ranging from newspapers and books to television, phones, radio, computer games, and the Internet.

The Findings?  The average American in 2008 consumed information  almost 12 hours per day, up from 7.4 hours per day in 1980.  According to the researchers,  current consumption corresponds to more than 100,000 words a day in addition to images and music.  Traditional media, like TV and radio account for 60 percent of our hours of consumption, but computer use constitutes a sizeable portion of our time.  Interestingly, reading, which had declined with the adoption of television, has tripled between 1980 and 2008, largely because that’s the main way people receive information on the Internet.

All this information helps us solve many problems, but it also presents problems, too.  Information overload can interfere with productivity and creativity.  Learning how to benefit from all this information without being overwhelmed by it can be a challenge.

When working on a project and especially when trying to be creative, it’s important to know when your brain has reached the saturation point of information and when it’s time to take a break to a low-information environment and find connections within the information you already have.

Some tips for preserving productivity under information overload:

1) When you’re overwhelmed with information for a project you’re working on, break away and do something else.

2) Choose a break of the low-information variety: Get some exercise or commune with nature instead of surfing the web or catching up on email.

3) When you return to your project refreshed, you’ll be surprised at how much clearer the picture becomes.

4) Be prepared to come up with that brilliant idea when you least expect it — your mind at ease continues to seek new insights in what you’ve recently been working on.  Always have pad and paper or digital recorder at the ready.

Less can indeed be more.

What do you think?

Tags: creativity, information overload

This entry was posted on Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 11:24 am and is filed under creativity, distraction, internet, productivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.