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Information Overload: Tips for Focusing on What You Need and Ignoring What You Don't

2009; Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation; Volume: 43; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2345/0899-8205-43.3.188

1943-5967

Darcy Lewis,

Organizational Change and Leadership

Pagers have long been a staple of life in the medical field, whether for obstetricians receiving notice that a patient is in labor or a biomedical equipment technician getting the urgent call that the hospital's computed tomography (CT) machine has gone down at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night. For many professionals, though, clocking out at 5:00 used to mean being off-duty until the next morning.Today, the latest technology the Information Age has to offer has done wonders for increasing the efficiency of our communications. Round-the-clock work-related communication has become commonplace, especially in the medical field. But there can be a downside, too: How to manage that overabundance of information.Everyone understands the realities of an on-call job, but cell phones and e-mail can make being out of touch out of style or, worse, unacceptable to the boss. All this instant communication can feel productive in the short-term, but too many e-mails and phone calls can decrease productivity and eventually lead to burnout unless carefully managed.So what's an overloaded employee to do? Peggy Duncan, a personal-productivity expert in Atlanta, suggests taking a step back to consider your work habits and your preferred work technologies and how you use them. “E-mail and the BlackBerry by themselves are not the problem. People are the problem,” she says. “You have to look at your processes. You do it for technical issues, but engineers and managers don't necessarily look at the processes they need to manage their own daily work flow.”Duncan lives by a rule that sounds simple, but is not necessarily easy: “For anything that you do more than three times, develop a process,” she says. “But that requires stopping and thinking, when people just want to get on with business. Typically, people do things the way they've always done them or the way their predecessor did them.” Everybody's process will be slightly different, depending on their working style and the culture of their organization. The key is finding what works for you.In recent years, humans' multitasking abilities have become almost a new gospel. Who doesn't want to get more things done in the same amount of time? Duncan, for one, has reservations about multitasking's benefits. “I like tools, but it's how people are using the BlackBerry and other similar devices that concerns me,” she says. “If you're in an important meeting and texting people under the table, you're giving half answers without context to the one you're sending to, and you're disrespecting those you're with.”But Chris Riha, director of clinical systems engineering at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, VA, has a different perspective. “Engineers [and other technical professionals] are used to multiprocessing. Years ago, I was with someone who worked on his laptop during a meeting and I thought it was rude,” he says. “But now that's the way the business is done. It's become a survival skill to multitask and scan e-mails in meetings. We all do it.”Mike Kauffman, assistant director of facilities at Reading Hospital & Medical Center in West Reading, PA, doesn't buy into this rationale. “Sometimes, people don't think I have enough to do, because there are usually only one or two files or pieces of paper on my desk,” he says. “That's because I choose to only focus one task at a time because I get better results that way. I think people can really only focus on one thing at a time effectively, despite all the hype about multitasking.”If you're feeling overwhelmed, Duncan and others suggest limiting the flow of information to only the most relevant sources. Dave Francoeur, vice president at ARAMARK Clinical Technology Services in Charlotte, NC, says, “There's always too much information to be managed without some kind of filtering, whether it's e-mail, phone, talking to clients, or meeting with employees. I look at everything I have to take in and assess its value. If it is valuable, I file it with whatever mechanism is appropriate.”Francoeur has a high-tech way to filter various messages, particularly when he travels, which is several days per week. “I have a BlackBerry that is only for e-mail and a cell phone that is only for voice calls,” he says. “Having two different devices, I don't worry about e-mails that come in while I'm on the phone and vice versa. I think that freedom to focus on larger issues is important from the executive standpoint.”Kauffman is also selective about the information he collects on a daily basis. “I have probably 100 different reports available I can pull from my computer, but I've picked only 15 that matter to me,” he says. “I've been using them for years now, because they give me exactly what I need. When you find what you're looking for, stop looking.”For those who don't have an assistant, Duncan urges self-restraint. “Unless you are 911 or a receptionist, you don't have to be available every time the phone rings or a message pops up,” she says. “You shouldn't feel obligated to be at everyone's beck and call.”Of course, that can be a fine line in a service department. “Responding to calls quickly and efficiently is the lifeblood of our department,” says Dave McBride, director of clinical engineering at Legacy Health System in Portland, OR, who sometimes chooses to field work request calls himself when the department's administrative staffer is out. “I'm usually in my office anyway, so I can do it pretty efficiently,” he says. “I've only been in this department a year, so fielding the calls helps me get a handle on the regular ebb and flow of things.”Choosing the right communications tool isn't necessarily as easy as it seems. For example, a common complaint is that too many people rely on e-mail when a simple phone call would resolve a matter more quickly. “The phone actually lets you get things accomplished. E-mails are typically more open-ended, and then you need to wait for a reply,” says Kauffman. “Many times, it's a choice between having a five-minute conversation about something or a string of 20 e-mails on the same subject, but people have gotten too used to e-mail.”Riha has a simple rule for taming this particular tiger: “If you've sent three e-mails on the same topic you're getting stuck in a loop,” he says. “It's time to pick up the phone or schedule a meeting.”Francoeur also has a technique for avoiding these e-mail loops. “I write most of my e-mails on airplanes and make sure I'm not online when I do it,” he says. “Then I upload all the e-mails later and everything gets sent. The advantage is that I can write the messages when I have the free time, but send them when I'm prepared to respond and have the resources I need available. It can help avoid getting into one of those time-consuming dialogues.”Of course, tools and technologies beyond phone and e-mail come into play, too. John Gagliardi is president and owner of MidWest Process Innovation LLC, a Maineville, OH, process architecture compliance consultancy. He spends most of his time traveling internationally. “On a recent plane ride to Germany, I had to read three 120-page standards before I got there,” he says. “I put them on a flash drive, read them on the plane and finished with plenty of time. With the number of standards I have to read day in and day out, there's no way I could carry all that paper around with me.”One of Gagliardi's most effective tools isn't even electronic. “Everyone should think about speed reading as an organizational tool. Whenever I teach a class, I always recommend doing a speed-reading course—they're online nowadays,” he says. “It takes some practice, but you can end up reading an entire paragraph at one shot.”Another Gagliardi favorite is even more low-tech and a reminder that sometimes paper and pen still have a place in the business world. “I always hand-write information about my flights, hotels, cars, and meetings into a small notebook,” he says. “I tried keeping track of it all electronically, but a lot of times I don't have e-mail access or my computer is shut down and put away, so I need something I can pull out of my pack standing in line at an airport.”These days, when people talk about a work routine, chances are it centers on e-mail: when to read and answer the hundreds of messages that land in the typical professional's inbox each day, and when not to.Riha uses his BlackBerry throughout the day to give quick answers, then handles more in-depth responses from home in the evenings. “I get online once my son is in bed by 10:00 p.m. and spend about an hour playing catchup,” he says. “I feel that this system allows me the flexibility to enjoy my family but still be productive.”Kauffman, who also finds time to run the popular Biomedtalk listserv, would rather get up early and is at his computer most days by 5:30 am. “This works for me because I don't like to pop in and out of e-mails or give half answers,” he says. “I might sit on something for a while, but will then respond thoroughly in the morning, when I'm freshest.”Clearly, busy professionals have many options to handle the ongoing onslaught of information needed to navigate the biomedical world. “People will have different perspectives based on the environment where they actually do their work. A lot of times, my office is in my carry bag, so I need a different set of tools and techniques than a person who goes to the same office every day,” Gagliardi says. “What I do works for me and my environment, and I'm sure that what others are doing works for them, too. Everyone has a different way of staying organized and, at least most of the time, it seems to work for them.”Izabella Gieras, ARAMARK Healthcare's director of clinical engineering at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, agrees, but does sound a cautionary note. “Not being able to handle the flow of information can really hold someone back in their career,” she says. “Time management skills and project management skills are critically important because we all get overloaded. The ability to prioritize becomes more and more important as you advance in your career.”