What is communication overload?
Communication overload is when you have multiple, simultaneous modes of interaction going on. It’s when you’re flooded with just too many emails, phone calls, texts, instant messages, and social media updates.
Well, how does it affect me?
It can feel like you are constantly being bombarded by information if you’re experiencing communication overload. Not only that, but it forces people to multitask because effort is spent contacting people via different methods while working, which can be distracting.
A recent study published in Media Psychology suggests that a combination of communication overload and internet multitasking leads to digital stress.
What can I do about it?
- Start by editing your notifications. Notifications are not made equal and some things that pop up on your screen just aren’t as important as others.
- Weed out information that you don’t need. This can include pages that you liked (but don’t really like) on Facebook, unsubscribing to emails about products that you don’t use anymore, or unfollowing certain people on Twitter.
- Allow yourself moments in the day to unplug from technology.
- Reconsider the next email you send and ask yourself whether it is important enough or not.
- Find ways of grouping your methods of communication together. Huffington Post suggests adding the right apps and taking away the wrong apps can help with communication overload.
If you’re tired of constantly having to switching between email to mobile to a new web browser every few minutes, try Team.biz. Team.biz combines many of these methods of communication into one streamless app.
