Social researcher S.A. Wurman once calculated that every issue of the New York Times contains more information than the average person in Elizabethan England learned in their lifetime. Wurman released this startling tidbit back in 1987---before the info-splosion we call the Internet really got started. Imagine how much worse we have it today, with our daily deluge of print and broadcast news, webpages, social media, email, and more. 

Some researchers claim we now create more information every two days than we did from ancient times up to the year 2003. Add in easy access to nearly every book, magazine, and newspaper ever published, and it's hardly surprising that, according to research analyst Jonathan B. Spira, "94% of knowledge workers have felt overwhelmed to the point of incapacitation by the amount of information they encounter on a daily basis." 

There are nearly 79 million information workers in the United States alone. The fact that 94% of us have been vaporlocked by information overload at one time or another has sobering ramifications for productivity---to the tune of billions of dollars per year. 

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Gertrude Stein saw this coming long ago. Early in the 20th century, she pointed out, "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense." Her observation seems especially apropos today, most of a century later.

Stein had no trouble calling a spade a spade; she spoke her mind about whatever she observed. A true iconoclast and self-described genius, she helped redefine English literature, breaking it out of 19th century constraints and pushing the envelope of experimental fiction, poetry, and plays. She spent most of her adult life in France, reigning as a guru over a salon of expatriate American artists and writers, dispensing the common sense that so many were losing even then to the influx of new information. 

Reducing Your Information Intake

As with so many other aspects of modern work life, the only way to overcome "infobesity" is to triage mercilessly, and then reduce your intake forever after. Keep these tips in mind as you work toward stemming the info-tide.