Something more practical for you, as I've been concentrating on Infogineering theory too much recently. Although having an underlying theory is important in tying everything together, I'm frequently trying to come up with things that you can go away and try right now to make your life better.

Anyone who works in a large organisation will be getting more and more e-mails by the week. Once you get to the point where you can't handle it all, this could be considered e-mail overload.

While Infogineering teaches you how to make better information, what happens about stuff coming at you? When you are overloaded with incoming e-mail - the good, the bad and the ugly - there seems little you can do.

Here are some thoughts on how to cut it down...

1) Don't leave your e-mail program running all the time, unless you contractually have to (e.g. customer service). The constant "ping" of incoming mails distracts you, and stops you dealing with your work efficiently. If something is urgent, they can use the phone. If you answer every e-mail within 2 minutes, you are simply training people that this is the best way to contact you. Let people know that you are only going to check your e-mail twice a day - e.g. 9am and 4pm. The rest of the day... do some proper work.

2) Put "NO REPLY NECESSARY" at the bottom of e-mails that don't require any response. There is no point having your inbox filled with one-word "thanks" e-mails. Presume they got it.

3) Is most of your inbox junk mail? Get a SPAM filter installed, and let it do the work. Don't do silly things, like publishing your e-mail address on websites, as spammers collect these in the same way Google collects web pages. Anything with an @ symbol is easily found.

4) Set up separate e-mail accounts for separate purposes. Have a work e-mail address, a personal e-mail (for family friends) and one for subscribing to websites, etc, where you don't need to check it that often. GMail, Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts are all free - and come with inbuilt spam filters to keep out the bad guys.

5) Set up rules in your e-mail program. Do you get a weekly report that always has the same subject line? Set up a rule to file this away into a special folder. You can also set up rules to file away anything you were Cc'd in to another folder. Cc is designed to be "for information only" so you shouldn't be expected to do anything with it other than read it. If they need a response, they should use the To: line.

6) Learn to use alternatives to e-mail. Need to have a conversation (multiple-message back and forth discussion)? Have a 5 minute phone call, rather than a 2-hour game of e-mail tennis.

7) Don't let people use you as a search engine. If someone asks you a question, where the answer is available on the Intranet or Internet, just send them the URL rather than spending half-an-hour coming up with your own explanation.