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Last active December 3, 2021 14:39
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999+ New Messages - How to handle information overload
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notes.md

999+ New Messages - How to handle information overload

Solutions

Organisation

  • Filters: Enable filters in mailclients. Move Redmine tickets into a hotline folder, delete non-important mails automatically, move newsletters into »Read it later« folder. On Twitter: Use lists.

  • Routines: Create routines and set time frames for all channels. Set specific times for mail, eg. readings newsletters/bulletins in the morning, maybe set aside two or three times of day for email. Check social networks after lunch. Bundle all little tasks (check bank account, github notifications) into one block every day. Dont try to multitask, avoid “continuous partial attention”!

  • Restrictions: Turn off push-notifications! Block notifications in TYPO3 backend, block notifications for phone apps. Every notification is an interruption - may cause switching channels or add to processing capacity. Dont read work mail on private devices (eg. Volkswagen: no mails delivered after work hours). Dont check mails when out of bed, during lunch.

  • Prioritization: What needs to be in my field of view, what may be, what should not → Hotline Tickets »Emergency« Status & Breaking Systems: Yes. Hotline Tickets with »Low Prioriti« & Green Lights: No. Request/Write summaries rather than consuming every single occurrence of something the moment it happens.

  • Replacements: Replace channels if they dont fit → abolish e-mail and replace it with chat, abort chat and replace with tickets & mail. Remove barely used channels (IRC channel used by one guy only, mailinglist which is used only once a year) to reduce unnecessary channel switching. Allow app notifications only selectively on a smartwatch. Reduce integrations → altough its cool to add webhooks to slack, ask: do people realy need to be informed about everything in this channel or is a designated webpage preferable?

  • Discussions: Talk about communication channels. As a regular worker: Talk with collegues how they use a channel. Are there better ways? A need for something new? Does your manager listen to you? As a manager: Tell your collegues what you want to talk about, and what you dont want to talk about, and whats the best time frame. Set expectaions that it is okay to be unavailable, to focus on work. Ask somebody why he did send out several single notifications instead of a single summary at the end of the day.

  • Transfers: Move information to designated channels → eg. Mail is terrible for task management! Move tasks to a task manager (Todo-List/ Ticketsystem). Chats are terrible to store data or ask for decisions. Move discussion from #general to own channel, move support from Chat to StackOverflow. Let people know when and what to transfer, define which place is used for what. Eg. Provide a place where collegues may goof around, have fun, a sense of belonging. This replaces "funny" mails and reduces unwanted mails. General rule of thumb “Real-time sometimes, asynchronous most of the time”. Avoid sending announcements in chats (use asynchronous communication options for them).

  • Delete: accept FOMO. Eg. just read most recent timeline on Twitter, ignore the past, its gone. Delete all "Read It Later" items older than 10 weeks.

Methods

Tools

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pixelbrackets commented Dec 7, 2020 •
edited

2020 Update

Tools

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