Information overload getting you down? These readers learned to control the flow and dumped the pileup guilt.
There are more than 18,000 magazines in the United States. ¶ About 195,000 new books were published last year. ¶ Nearly 12 billion e-mails are sent every day in the U.S. alone. ¶ And the number of websites and blogs just waiting for you to give them a bit of attention? Let's not even go there. ¶ The information age indeed. At times, it feels more like the overwhelmed-with-information age. Between business must-reads and that hot novel everybody's talking about, catching up on your reading often seems like an impossible task. But it doesn't have to be. "I think it can overwhelm you if you let it," says John Buchanan, president of the hospitality industry's Lettuce Consulting Group. "I think the key is being able to filter what comes to you and not let the weight of it [all] get you down." ¶ We spoke with eight people who have put information-control strategies to work for their work and personal lives. Read on to find out how you can turn that stack of magazines sitting on your night table into action items that will move your business forward.

The Traveler
There are weeks when Cynthia Park is on the road (or in the air) 60 percent of the time. So the executive vice president and managing director of Kang & Lee Advertising, which focuses on the Asian-American market, reads early in the morning and in snatches of time throughout the day.

She rises as early as 5:30 a.m. to start her news-reading ritual in front of her computer or with the occasional hard copy of a newspaper. "I purposely look for information when there's no outside pressure. I really like to tackle it. I want to understand it," she says. "My job calls for that - to be on the ball."