Computer Interface
Information is rushing out to you from all directions —
letters, newspapers, magazines, phone calls, voice mails, SMS, twitter tweets,
facebook alerts and of course — emails on Blackberry and your PC.
There is enormous amount of content flowing in from all
directions. Just look at the developments at Twitter and other social media.
It was named Twitter by its founder, Jack Dorsey, because the
company wanted to capture the feeling of buzzing the world. With a limit of 140
characters, no one could have predicted the success of a communicator of
‘inconsequential information’.
It is estimated that 7.8% of Twitter users come from India,
making India the number 3 user of Twitter after the US and Germany.
Many famous personalities have a large number of followers on
Twitter. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs has around
3,00,000 followers !
Youtube claims to have more than 350 million monthly visitors
and more than 3 billion photos and videos have been tagged on Flickr.
And what about emails ? For any professional around the
world, it is THE most critical form of communication. If your email server is
down, you might as well take a coffee break !
But, how do you manage the large traffic of emails which
inundates your inbox ? Do you feel overwhelmed ?
By pushing emails into handheld devices like Blackberry, the
ease of access has increased. However, it has also created some societal
problems. Children who are desperate to regain their parents’ attention from
Blackberry are often called ‘Blackberry orphans’. In some cities in Canada,
citizens have been requested to voluntarily turn off their Blackberry after 6.00
p.m. in the evening.
There is a way to manage this information overload.
Technology can help. There are software tools to help you
manage your inbox. It can prioritise your emails by importance, sort them by
senders and filter them. These tools can help you to personalise your email
settings.
Microsoft is now working on a futuristic application
(‘Priorities’) to sense work patterns and modulate the flow of emails — e.g.,
it will force a time lag in delivery of email depending on the urgency of the
email and the time of the day based on work pattern of the recipient.
Help is also available from personal productivity tools. You
can effect a change in your working habits. Some examples :
- Don’t start
the day with powering on your PC and checking your emails. First, work out
your plan for the day.
- Remove the
mail alert. You will avoid jumping on to the Inbox as soon as you hear the
alert, irrespective of the urgency of your other work.
- Make
distinction between mails which are urgent, important and a combination of
both.
- Have a few
hours of ‘email downtime’ in a day when you engross yourself fully in your
other work.
We live in a knowledge economy and information is the most
valuable commodity. Rather than be overwhelmed with it, you need to figure out
how to ‘tame the beast’. Enough !
