But sticking with a healthy diet isn't easy. Too many of us eat too much "junk food" of too little nutritional value. Instead of dining on a variety of nutritious, healthy meals, we stuff ourselves with the "empty" calories of potato chips, instant ramen, onigiri, fast-food hamburgers, pizza, and cola. And that can lead to a body that is overweight but undernourished.

Meanwhile, those empty calories go straight to our waists and thighs. According to a recent US government study (I don't have reliable statistics for Japan), over half of Americans (59% of men and 49% of women) are overweight, and one-third fit the government definition of "obese."

Which is why we're spending increasing amounts (Americans spent over $25 billion last year) on weight loss programs, potions, and products. And even more on pills and doctor bills to cure the health problems that our unhealthy diets are creating.

Segue to IT. Substitute "information" for "food" in the description above, and it pretty much describes our modern data diet. We try to consume too much data of poor informational value. Afraid we might miss some obscure detail that could give us an edge over our colleagues/competitors, we spend hours overindulging in empty calories for the brain.

Unfortunately, there are no clear, simple guidelines to assess what is good (useful) information and what is not. It's easy to compare the nutritional value of an apple versus that of a sack of potato chips. It's not so easy to judge the value or validity of a mailing list discussion or alt.business.tips newsgroup posting compared with a Timbuktu Times news article or the readithere.com website.

We collectively spend billions trying to undo the damage we're doing to our bodies by eating too much of the wrong foods. But how much time and money are we spending (wasting) trying to digest the daily data deluge?

More is not better. In information (as in food), past a threshold level, quality counts for more than quantity. The Internet is the intellectual equivalent of the junk food industry. It offers us variety, convenience, and tempting flavors, but most of the "packages" contain little more than high-calorie artificial ingredients of minimal nutritional value.

It's probably too late to remind you not to overindulge in all those tempting-but-fattening holiday treats. But with the new year at hand, it's not too late to resolve to start watching your data diet. You'll not only trim your bulging file folders, but you may find that focusing your efforts and sticking to your data diet plan gives you more time to actually work and makes your efforts more effective.

Happy New Year!

WM. Auckerman