Information overload doesn’t have to be overwhelming, and author Ross Dawson shares eight principles that will prevent you from drowning in the surplus of available information. For example: Set information objectives. You can’t begin to sort through the ‘infoglut’ unless you know what is most important to you. To set effective information objectives you need to start from your own objectives…. Putting thought into identifying the key areas you need to be informed on, and prioritising these by importance and timeliness will let you know what you should be focusing on.

Dawson also suggests keeping an open mind, aggressive filtering, and developing strong note-taking abilities (among others). These skills can help you gain a competitive advantage and enable you to cope in a world where excess data is becoming increasingly more difficult to deal with. If managed properly, Dawson claims, you can achieve great success. The “problem” of information overload doesn’t have to be one at all; it could open doors and present itself as an opportunity. The article is written from the perspective of a business director or other high-level position, but most of the ideas are equally applicable to any of us.

Now you can post to your blog or Twitter account, schedule an appointment or post to a Yahoo Group with previously mentioned voice-to-text phone service Jott. Jott can now transcribe voice notes and post them to WordPress, TypePad, LiveJournal and Blogger; for social updates, Jott now integrates with Twitter and Jaiku; and for scheduling, there’s 30 Boxes support (please to add Gcal?). Somewhat less exciting, you can also post to Yahoo Groups and get real estate estimates from Zillow. We’ve heard both positive and negative feedback from readers about the accuracy of Jott transcriptions, but with all of the new web integration, there’s no question that Jott’s making huge strides in innovation. Thanks Bryce!