A couple times a year I slip the electronic tether to float weightlessly in the infinite blue sea, bringing home memories and photos of another world. Most long term eDiscovery peers have developed similar mechanisms to cope with the stress and information overload inherent in our profession. The sheer relief I experienced being disconnected from my flood of email, posts, articles, books, chats, meetings, etc. got me thinking about how the volume, diversity and intensity of information we all experience has slowly ramped up over the last two decades. Knowledge workers are the proverbial ‘frogs in the data pot’. We have become acclimated to 24/7 availability and instantaneous response requirements. My first holiday diving trip happened in the middle of the Enron investigations when one of my favorite GC’s found out how many hours I was putting in. Peggy Heeg handed me a rare bonus check and locked me out of the building for a week with the command, “Take a vacation before you kill yourself.” Today I feel like most knowledge workers are putting in those same hours comingled throughout our days, evenings and weekends. The demands of data now reach us everywhere through our ‘smart’ phones. I do not believe that any of us want to live playing ‘whack-a-mole’ with constant notification red dots, beeps or pop-ups. While I do not have a solution today, I am determined to understand the impact of our information overload and how we can use technology to take control of our data. I got to do some good reading and contemplation while not swimming with the turtles. Expect a long term series of posts exploring personal information management among other topics. In the meanwhile, enjoy some of the moments and creatures I digitized while in the flow.
Greg Buckles wants your feedback, questions or project inquiries at Greg@eDJGroupInc.com. Contact him directly for a free 15 minute ‘Good Karma’ call. He solves problems and creates eDiscovery solutions for enterprise and law firm clients.
Greg’s blog perspectives are personal opinions and should not be interpreted as a professional judgment or advice. Greg is no longer a journalist and all perspectives are based on best public information. Blog content is neither approved nor reviewed by any providers prior to being published. Do you want to share your own perspective? Greg is looking for practical, professional informative perspectives free of marketing fluff, hidden agendas or personal/product bias. Outside blogs will clearly indicate the author, company and any relevant affiliations.
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