Overloaded Circuits: Why Smart People Underperform, Edward M. Hallowell. 2005. Harvard Business Review, Jan.
Frenzied executives who fidget through meetings, lose track of their appointments, and jab at the "door close" button on the elevator aren't crazy – just crazed. They suffer from a newly recognized neurological phenomenon that the author, a psychiatrist, calls attention deficit trait, or ADT. It isn't an illness; it's purely a response to the hyperkinetic environment in which we live. But it has become epidemic in today's organizations. When a manager is desperately trying to deal with more input than he possibly can, the brain and body get locked into a reverberating circuit while the brain's frontal lobes lose their sophistication, as if vinegar were added to wine. The result is black-and-white thinking; perspective and shades of gray disappear. People with ADT have difficulty staying organized, setting priorities, and managing time, and they feel a constant low level of panic and guilt. It is possible to control ADT by engineering one's environment and one's emotional and physical health. Make time every few hours for a "human moment" – a face-to-face exchange with a person you like. Get enough sleep, switch to a good diet, and get adequate exercise. Break down large tasks into smaller ones, and keep a section of your work space clear. Try keeping a portion of your day free of appointments and e-mail. The author recommends that companies invest in amenities that contribute to a positive atmosphere.
Online quite a few places post their summaries and advice following this article: here are a few
Advice from a consulting firm
A deatiled summary from an executive coaching firm
Another take from a professional organization
Ed Hallowell's advice on better daily schedules
A research study finds that you can reduce the effects of ADT Information overload: why some people seem to suffer more than others in ACM International Conference Proceeding Series; Vol. 189 (Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: changing roles.) Ruud Janssen, Henk de Poot. 2006. p397 - 400.
We studied information overload among senior managers in an industrial company. We used the critical incident collection technique to gather specific examples of information overload and coping strategies. We then used textual interpretation and the affinity diagram technique to interpret the interviews and to categorize our respondents, the critical incidents they described, and the coping strategies they mentioned. Our results show that the extent to which people suffer from information overload is closely related to the strategies they use to deal with it.