??Rands??: “Repetitive Information Injury”:http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2005/11/02/repetitive_information_injury.html.
For me RII shows up late in the day. I’m between meetings and having nothing urgent on my to do list. I sit down at the computer and scan my unread email. Once done there, I click on a couple of tab groups in Safari and scan the news. Lastly, I switch to NetNewsWire and scan for changes on my 75+ feeds. And then… I do it again. And again.
And here I was on my second loop through when i saw this. Seriously. thats freaky. Okay, one more loop through and then on to the next project of the day.
For me its (a typical loop with no new information takes 2 to 3 minutes):
1) Sync Email Accounts (which pulls in any new feeds form the last hour)
2) check the problem reports
3) look at my to do list
4) look at my flagged email messages
5) See if any new IM buddies have logged in. Deal with messages that have accumlated
6) Read new mail
7) goto 1
::nods::
I do this way too much.
Yeah, this article really hit home for me, too. Late at night, when I’m too tired to do anything constructive, I end up in this loop looking for the latest interesting information nugget. I’m totally like a mouse hitting the feed bar.
It’s been helpful for me to think about *creating* the next new and interesting thing on the web rather than looking for someone else to do it. That thought will send me back to my to-do lists or inbox to see what I have energy left to do. If the answer is “nothing,” it’s definitely time for bed.
I definitely think there’s a correlation between the increase over the years in mental illnesses and behavioral disorders (especially the spike in autism and ADD/ADHD) and the overwhelming increase of information with which humans are bombarded on a daily basis.