Navigating a mass of messages

Like the Energizer bunny, Americans just keep messaging, and messaging, and messaging....

In fact, office workers send and receive an average of 201 messages a day each, up 6 percent from last year, according to a study for Pitney Bowes, which makes mailing equipment. The message breakdown:

*52 phone messages

*36 e-mails

*23 voice mails

*36 pieces of mail

*14 faxes

*8 pages

*7 overnight deliveries

*More than 20 miscellaneous slips of paper.

By comparison, Germans send and receive 177 messages, Britons 171, and Canadians only 169.

The danger, according to the survey, is that workers will lose track of what's important in the flood of messages.

In today's information economy, messaging has become the primary task of many jobs, the study says. The companies that get ahead will be those that make the best use of messaging technology.