If just keeping track of the information in your inbox seems overwhelming, consider the task of counting all the information the world produces in a year. Last year, people generated five exabytes of information, the equivalent of a half-million new libraries the size of the Library of Congress. With a world population of 6.3 billion, that's about 800 megabytes of recorded information produced per person, which would take about 30 feet of books to store on paper. We're drowning in a sea of information. When you look at the challenge we face, how do we manage all this information? Our ability to capture all that information has outrun our ability to utilize it effectively. If you haven't already purchased Getting Things Done I would highly recommend this book, as it will provide a major tool to help you weed through this digital overload.
The researchers also found that Americans are both information powerhouses and paper hogs. The United States produces about 40 percent of the world's new stored information, and North Americans use almost 12,000 sheets of paper per person per year, about 5,000 more than our European counterparts.
Silicon Valley.com October 29, 2003