ISM's 93rd Annual International Supply Management Conference

St. Louis, MO
May 2008

Author(s):

Paul D. Larson, Ph.D., Director, Transport Institute, University of Manitoba

If you have a nagging feeling you are being buried by information every day, you are probably right.

According to Paul D. Larson, who spoke at a workshop entitled: "Dealing with Information Overload: Tools and Techniques," the vast majority of supply management professionals lose a considerable amount of productivity each day due to this problem.

Among his findings from his research are the following points:

• 56 percent of managers feel they get too much information;
• People are spending as much as 20 percent of their workday reading and responding to e-mail;
• The three biggest time-wasters are meetings; dealing with communication from others, and communicating to others;
• Unnecessary interruptions take up 28 percent of a manager's day;
• $588 billion is the annual cost due to interruptions
• Information overload increased levels of stress to 92 percent of respondents in one study he did.

Larson's main advice to the audience was to give yourself a block of time in which you cannot be disturbed by e-mail, phone or other co-workers.

Return to the Online Daily Main Page.