Two data points came to my attention on this topic in the past couple days.  One is from Marc Averitt on the chaos awaiting him after being out of the office for a week even after trying to manage voice mail and email via BBerry. 

The other is from a recent LexisNexis survey (via Info Governance) that states that in the 8.89 hour average workday (gotta wonder where that number came from) employees spend 2.3 hours doing on-line research.  In digging into the study a bit, the results are heavily skewed towards legal and education sector employees which leads to the large amount of time spent researching.

Coincidence that LexisNexis provides research products/services?  I think not.

Regardless, we have no shortage of inbound communication demanding our attention and no shortage of on-line content available to occupy our time.  The question remains for us all -what is a priority and how do I get to the information I need quickly?