These are Lewis solutions:
Training is the key, says Lewis. Most of us can only read 200 or 300 words a minute. The way we are taught to read at school is to say the words aloud and go over each one. If you miss a word out you are made to go back and read it again. But with a little training a person can read 3,000 words a minute. From an early age he believes children should be trained to speed read and fillet documents. There are quick ways of reading technical documents which are written to a standard format, and the same goes for memos. Speed reading means not pronouncing each sound in your head but running your eye across a block of text looking for relevant information.
Companies must take the problem seriously. You often get a situation in companies where people will write an e mail and then copy it to a lot of people who don't really need to see it. This can be an expression of power on the part of the person who is doing it. Unnecessary e-mail should be discouraged. Written communication should be concise, clearly expressed and in plain English rather than jargon. People adopt long-winded ways of saying things such as at this moment in time rather than now. When voice dictation arrives this problem is going to get a lot worse. The easier it is for people to communicate the more they do it.
Systems should be in place to filter unnecessary communications and to stop employees from being overloaded with information. From an individual point of view, a healthy lifestyle will help with this problem as with other kinds of stress. Take screen breaks. Take a proper lunch break, go for a stroll, have a nourishing meal. Don't spray your terminal with sandwich crumbs every day. Don't drink too much tea and coffee or take refuge in alcohol. Get a girlfriend/boyfriend, advises Lewis. If you have a warm, intimate relationship with another person you are very lucky. In this situation as in many others it helps to be able to talk about your feelings.
How seriously should we take this new illness?
Reading was once the most innocuous of activities. Are we to believe that it can now take its place along with sex, drugs and fast cars as serious to health? For those without stressful executive jobs, information overload can probably be sneered at as yet another yuppie disease. But managers struggling with streams of email, reams of reports and mountains of memos might do worse than take it to heart.