What are the relevant factors that drive or result from information overload?

Thomas asked this question during the PMI Learning, Education and Development Community of Practice presentation I gave about Collaboration Tools for Project Managers. We were talking about using social media tools at work for communication and collaboration, and – of course – the topic of information overload came up.

Normally I’m asked how to deal with information overload, so it was interesting to get a question about what drives it and what happens as a result of it – it made me think!

Here’s my response.

What drives information overload:

  • An insistence that all communication goes through you
  • Lack of trust in the team
  • The team’s lack of trust in each other, so they include you in all communication
  • A failure to see what is relevant to the task being done
  • Being copied in to things ‘for information only’
  • Not managing your software tool alerts effectively and getting alerts for absolutely everything
  • Not managing interruptions effectively
  • Sleep deprivation

What results from information overload:

  • Stress
  • Feeling overwhelmed
  • Constant interruptions which dents productivity
  • A feeling that we are really important because people need us all the time (this isn’t good, by the way)
  • A full inbox, but normally full of stuff that isn’t really important
  • A project that slows down due to bottlenecks in communication
  • Difficulty archiving everything and therefore difficulty finding anything
  • Lack of focus
  • Lack of trust in the team (yes, it’s a virtuous circle)

What else would you add to these lists? Follow me on Instagram and let me know!