Philipp Lenssen, who's normally blogging about Google products and developments, sent a single question to workers at some of the country's top tech firms on how they deal with all the email, feeds, voicemail, and other clatter clamoring for their attention. The answers are informative and, in some cases, pretty surprising. Elinor Mills, reporter at CNET, talks about her reasonable "triage" approach:
I scan email and see what needs immediate attention, set aside things that can wait and then go back to them in order of importance, hoping that none of them expires in the meantime ... I scan the RSS and iGoogle headlines several times a day. It is overwhelming the amount of information that gets thrust at you every day all day, especially in the daily news business. I also make a lot of lists of ideas to pursue and stories I'm working on to try to stay on top of it.
The point Lenssen pulls out of that: There are times when information will absolutely overwhelm us, like patients flooding a hospital, and we'd do well to scale our attention spans and reactions to cover as much ground as possible. Whose info-handling styles do you agree with, and whose sound amazing, considering where they sit? Share your thoughts in the comments.
