everal recent analyses have highlighted the costs of information overload and its close cousin—interruptions. Some statistical food for thought:

    An analysis published in 2007 by Basex Inc., a New York-based knowledge economy research firm, found that that 28 percent of a knowledge worker’s day is consumed by interruptions, resulting in a cost to business of $588 billion.

    An information technology employee at Intel receives 350 messages weekly on average, according to a 2006 survey involving nearly 2,300 employees. On average, those Intel employees devote 20 hours weekly to managing e-mail. They describe 30 percent of incoming messages as unnecessary.

    Six out of every 10 professionals (62 percent) report spending a lot of time sorting through irrelevant information to locate what they need, according to a survey of 650 white-collar workers by LexisNexis in December 2007. Even more professionals, 85 percent, describe such difficulties as a huge time waster.

—Charlotte Huff

Workforce Management Online, July 2008 -- Register Now!