Paul Chin has written a great article about information-overload. The problem with a lot of intranets is the amount of information we put on it. But rather than worrying about the amount of intranet content, we should be questioning the manner in which we handle this information in our daily lives.

Some of his tips are:

Don't be obsessive about your intranet content — it's not going anywhere. Unless you're looking for something specific, there's no need to constantly check the system.

Try to designate a specific time during the day in which to surf the intranet (i.e., content discovery) or to catch-up on newsletters and RSS feeds.

Stay focused. If you accessed the system for a specific purpose, stick to it. It's all too easy to get sidetracked in content heavy intranets.

If you find content of interest that doesn't apply to your immediate needs, make note of it and return to it later.

If you haven't read something you saved or filed away within a week, you're not likely to read it at all so delete it.

Don't sign up for content delivery just because it's there. Try to be more selective in the amount and type of content that's delivered to avoid a flood of information.

Organize your content. If you're collecting content to be digested later, don't dump everything into one place; instead, categorize your research material to avoid clutter.

Content owners need to be mindful of what types of information they post on their intranet to ensure that irrelevant material doesn't detract from, and clutter up, more important content.

He has a great closing thought:

An intranet can hold as much content as server disk space affords. When you run out of space, you can always add more. But as human beings we don't have the same luxury. With all the information and work we already have to deal with on a daily basis, you don't want your intranet content to cause a meltdown.

Don't curse an intranet for having an abundance of information. As a CMS, that's the system's job: To manage information. But you have your part in this too. Content is placed into an intranet to suit as wide an audience as possible — it's up to you to decide what's applicable to you and not to feel the need to become a sponge. If you do, you're going to end up changing the "M" in CMS from "management" to "migraine."

» Dealing with Information Overload