Death by Powerpoint

What audiences find irritating about Powerpoint:

speaker read the slides 60%

text too small to read 51%

text too wordy 48%

poor slide color choices 37%

moving text or graphics 25%

irritating sounds 22%

complex charts 22%

Reduce the Volume of Items

When you continually seek to reduce the volume of items you’ve retained, you have a better chance of managing information overload:

Rather than keeping a five-page report, retain only the single page that you actually need. Rather than retaining an entire page, clip the paragraph, address and phone number, or key item of information that you actually need, and chuck the rest of the page. With the small clipping or subsection of page you've retained, tape it to a single page, perhaps one that contains other relevant retained tidbits. Always strive to retain only the bare minimum information that you believe is necessary. Strive to reduce the size/weight/volume of the pile.

Reexamine everything in the pile once again. Even after you've pared down a particular pile to a smaller, more concise pile, review it with the notion "what am I continuing to retain that adds to little or nothing?" Perhaps you are already familiar with the issue an item represents and don't need to retain printed information relating to it.

Fasten together like items. When you've pared down your piles to the lowest possible volume and gotten them into mean, lean, slim, trim shape, keep like items together, using a stapler, paper clip, or rubber band. A paper clip assembling a packet of papers works best for temporary assemblage.

In general, the more like items you can fasten together, the easier it will be for you to find any particular item that you need!

Break the Grip

To break the grip that too much information has on you, I suggest the following:

* When you get home, practice sitting in your TV room for 30 minutes without the TV on.

* Skip reading the newspaper, anytime you feel like it.

* In general, be more selective in what you decide to read. Just because there is an abundance of interesting articles to read, doesn't mean you have to read them.

We're all taking in more information than we can expect to absorb. You can only remember--and act upon--so much anyway; so, be selective!

Airplane Arrivals

Information you can use: www.flightarrivals.com lets you know which planes are arriving when!

Internet access in your area

Want to know what options you have for Internet access in your area or in an area you'll be visiting? Visit http://www.thelist.com/ and enter the telephone area code or zip code. You will then see a display of all the providers.

Background Checks

When you need information on a business or person, background checks can be done from $0 to $125 through:
Credit bureaus
County business records
Marriage and divorce records
Clipping services
State and federal court records
Bankruptcy court
Municipal and county real estate deeds

Jeff Davidson's session

The benefits you will receive for attending Jeff Davidson's session on Managing Information and Communication Overload

[ ] identify major inhibitors of information management and learn to avoid them

[ ] become and remain organized

[ ] gain more room in your desk, file folders, shelves, and cabinets

[ ] manage your computer desktop with the same grace and ease as your physical desktop

[ ] gain practical tips and strategies for handling the daily volume of information

[ ] improve concentration for tasks big and small, long and short

[ ] keep track of professional as well as personal tasks you're handling

[ ] develop a rapid responsive system for verbal, written, and e-communications

[ ] more easily identify, screen, and assess information potentially valuable to you

[ ] cross fertilize disparate ideas to derive new insights and effective solutions

[ ] overcome the sense of overwhelm that can diminish your energy and creativity

Webliography on Info Overload

Here is an “Information/Work Overload Annotated Webliography.” Best bet: scroll down to the turquoise blue banner containing links to books and articles.

News Alert Services

Here is a new book that has got me thinking. Perhaps i need to look into news alert services instead of be buffeted by whatever news comes my way:

Choosing and Using a News Alert Service
by Robert Berkman

In the age of the Internet, 24-hour cable news, and globalization, what counts the most for many researchers and news users, particularly business news users, is how quickly they are alerted to important breaking news. There are dozens of competing firms that offer an e-mail-based news alert service. But how to know which one is best?

This comprehensive new guide explains how these tools work and then identifies, compares, and evaluates more than two dozen free, inexpensive, and fee-based alert services. It helps you pick the right one, and advises how to get the most out of the news alert once you begin the service. A detailed appendix also compares specific news source coverage for the major news alert vendors.