Disorganization plagues technological age
rune-saving devices
may make life more
difficult for some
people.
CONCORD, Mass. (AP)—Nancy
Michaels was determined to continue
working after she and her husband
adopted a child last year, so she filled
her home office with time-saving de
vices.
They slowed her down.
"There were things I needed to
spend more time and attention on, but
I couldn’t, just because it took me so
long to open the mail, not to mention
voice mail and"e-mail,” said Michaels,
a marketing consultant who ultimately
f
nirea a proiessionai organizer. t teit
like, what’s wrong with me that I can’t
get on top of this?”
The same technology that has pro
vided seemingly limitless ways to get
organized has paradoxically made life
seem out of control as workers, stu
dents and parents face greater demands
on their time. That is part of the ratio
nale behind National Get Organized
Week, which starts today.
Instead of enjoying the growing
wealth of information, people are be
sieged by it, said Stephanie Denton,
chairwoman of the National Get Or
ganized Week Committee.
The average American gets 49,060
pieces of mail in a lifetime, one-third
of it junk mail, according to the Na
tional Association of Professional Or
gamzers, wnicn organizes uet Orga
nized Week.
Executives lose an estimated hour
each day to disorganization, the asso
ciation estimates. A 12-foot wall could
be built from New York to Los Ange
les with the amount of office and writ
ing paper thrown away each year.
‘‘We get snowed under by all this
information and it's so overwhelming
that it’s really difficult to actually make
a decision,” said Ethel Cook, a busi
ness productivity consultant and presi
dent of the Corporate Improvement
Group. “There’s so much information
that it’s getting harder and harder to
shut it out, and if you do you worry
you might miss something.”
There’s a name for this:
“recomplicating,” which assumes that
many labor-saving devices actually
require more drudgery.
“You name me a technology and I’ll
tell you the flip side,” said Jeff
Davidson, author of “Breathing Space:
Living and Working at a Comfortable
Pace in a Sped-Up Society.”
Of course, this growing sense of
dislocation has spawned an entire in
dustry of professional organizers and
efficiency consultants.
“We are seeing a shift from 10 to
IS years ago when people thought an
organizer was a person who could help
them with their closets,” Denton said.
Experts recommend that people
simply find more time to organize
themselves, but they admit it’s harder
than it sounds.
“As always for all complicated
problems, there is a simple solution that
won’t work,” said A. Thomas
Hollingsworth, dean of the school of
business at Florida Institute of Tech
nology. “What is really necessary is to
change behaviors. For instance, make
sure that every day you have a project
that you complete.”
And the technology, still scary to
many, can be tamed, said Barry
Lawrence* spokesman for the Society
for Human Resource Management.
“There is still a great deal of reluc
tance to let go of paper files,”
Lawrence said. “As a result, we are jug
gling both paper and electronic files.
This is a very difficult period. We have
got to get rid of our fears of going
paperless.”
15,000 walk for ADDS patients
WASHINGTON (AP) — Infants in stroll
ers, couples hand-in-hand, dogs wearing red rib
bons made their way around the streets of the
nation’s capital Sunday in an annual trek to raise
money for the care of AIDS patients.
Organizers estimated that more than 15,000
people participated in the 10th annual AIDS
Walk Washington, which began and ended at
the Ellipse between the White House and the
Washington Monument. The walk is the largest
fundraising event in the District of Columbia,
but similar events are held in major cities across
the country.
Tipper Gore, the vice president’s wife and
the walk’s honorary chairwoman, sent the walk
ers on their way with an appeal to keep up the
search for a cure to the disease that has killed
300,000 people in the United States.
Those who traveled the walking tour’s full
6.2 miles raised more than $2 million for AIDS
programs at the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which
provides housing, medical and other forms of
care for Washington-area AIDS patients.
Tourist Annie Davis, of Melbourne, Austra
lia, who said she has several friends living with
HIV and AIDS, walked in the march.
“I think this is great,” she said. “You get
people acknowledging AIDS, and that’s what
you want.” a v
Many participants wore T-shirts and held
banners in remembrance of loved ones lost to
AIDS.
DN EVENTS CALENDAR
' ■wVVwV.L*' ■*•• •
£«v
Monday, Oct. 7
Injury Prevention and
Care Week
Campus Recreation Center
For more information, call
4724769.
Healthy Back
12:10 -12:50 p.m.
Campus Rec
Basic Injury Principles
5:15 - 6:15 p.m.
Campus Rec
Tuesday, Oct. 8
Storyteller Patricia
POLACCO, AUTHOR AND
ILLUSTRATOR
Tifereth Israel Synagogue
3219 Sheridan Blvd.
6:45 p.m.
IPC Week workshops
Campus Rec Center
Basic Injury Principles
12:10 - 12:50 p.m.
Learn to Massage 7:00 -
8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 9
IPC Week workshops
Campus Rec Center
Healthy Back
12:10 -12:50 p.m.
Sports Massage Clinic
5:00-6:15 pm Campus Rec
Learn to Massage
7:00-8:00 pm
East Campus Union
Thursday, Oct. 10
The Comedy of Errors
Preview
Howell Theatre
8:00 p.m.
IPC Week workshops
Healthy Back
12:10-12:50 p.m.
East Campus Union
Sports Massage Clinic
5:00-6:15 pm Campus Rec
Learn to Massage
7:00 - 8:00 pm v
East Campus Union
Friday, Oct. 11
Red Letter Days
For more information, call Kelly
Legg at 4724646.
The Comedy of Errors
Howell Theatre r
8:00 p,m.
IPC Week workshops
Healthy Back
12:10 -12:50 p.m.
East Campus Union
Sports Massage Clinic
5.00-6:15 pm Campus Rec
Learn to Massage
700-8:00 pm
East Campus Union
Saturday, Oct. 12
The Comedy of Errors
Howell Theatre
8:00 p.m.
%jr,
HMOs begin to provide coverage
for alternative means of medicine
Leading health plans
experiment with adding
acpuncturists and massage
therapists to their insurance
policies.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hey won’t pay for
shark cartilage pills and coffee enemas yet, but
leading HMDs are experimenting with the demi
science called alternative medicine, hoping to
cure ills when regular medicine fails.
, It’s a startling trend. Many doctors still view
some alternative methods with great skepticism
—the word “quackery” is bandied about—and
health maintenance organizations have a repu
tation for shunning all hit the most reliable treat
ments.
While most HMOs already offer chiroprac
tic coverage, a number are adding acupunctur
ists and massage therapists, along with practi
tioners called naturopaths who use herbal rem
edies, relaxation therapies, yoga and more. The
health plans are offering to cover this care just
like they do for cardiologists and pediatricians.
Tuesday, the picture will broaden when Ox
ford Health Plans Inc., a highly profitable HMO
in the Northeast with a reputation for marketing
innovation, jumps into the field with the most
extensive program to date.
One big reason is that patients want it, even
though hardly any of the alternative techniques
have undergone rigorous, scientifically con
trolled studies.
A landmark survey, published in 1993 by
Harvard Medical School, showed that one in
three Americans used non traditional treatments,
spending $14 billion a year compared with just
under $1 trillion spent chi traditional health care.
“Consumers are already voting with their
out-of-pocket expenditures that these services
work,” said Alan Kittner, a California-based
consultant who helps HMOs set up networks of
alternative providers.
“Quite often these things can be less expen
sive than traditional health care, especially if you
can avoid hospitalizations,” said Randall
Huyser, an HMO industry analyst with the se
curities firm Furman Selz in San Francisco.
“Secondly, than is a tendency for people who
like holistic cures to generally be healthier
people, so they are more attractive patients for
HMOs.”
More importantly, public health authorities
are becoming convinced that at least some of
these things may really work.
At least 41 state governments now require
chiropractic coverage in some form. Six states
require acupuncture coverage and nine license
naturopaths. Late last year, the Washington state
Legislature mandated that all insurers provide
alternative medicine.
Pope faces appendix operation
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Patients in casts
and bandages crowded into windows and bal
conies Sunday to greet Pope John Paul tl as he
entereda Rome hospital for an operation to re
move an inflamed appendix.
The 76-year-old pontiff, wearing a white
cassock, walked slowly from his car into the
Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital. The operation will
be Tuesday morning, said hospital spokesman
Giuseppe Pallanch.
Patients flocked to windows and balconies.
Some wore casts or bandages and some used
wheelchairs.
“Good luck. Good luck,” y elled some of the
nearly 300 people at the hospital entrance. The
pope waved to the crowd.
Italy’s president, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro,
greeted the pope inside.
“I’m very worried for him,” said a nun, Sis
ter Valentina, Who had waited for the pope for
hours.
The pope’s recurring bouts of fevers and the
loss of his once-boundless vigor have led to open
speculation that he suffers from a more serious
illness. The Vatican has denied every report
about a chronic condition.
Managing Editor:
Assoc. News Editors:
Opinion Editor:
AP Wire Editor:
Copy Desk Chief:
Sports Editor:
A&E Editor:
Night Editor:
Photo Director:
Web Editor:
Doug Peters
Paula Lavigne
Jeff Randall
Anne Hjersman
KeMy Johnson
Julie Sobczyk
Mitch Sherman
Joshua GHim
Beth Narans
Tanna Kinnaman
Michelle Collins
Antone Oseka
Aaron Steckelberg
Dan Shattil
AmyStruthers
Tracy Welshans
All Director:
General Manager:
Advertising Manager:
Asst Advertising Manager:
Classified Ad
Publications Board
Chalmian:
Professional Adviser:
Tiffiny Clifton
Travis Brandt
Don Walton
473-7301
FAX NUMBER: 472-1761
The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska
Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly
during summer sessions.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas aid comments to the Daily Nebraskan by calling
472-2588. The public has access to the Publications Board.
Subscription price is $55 for one year.
Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34, 1400 R St.,
Lincoln, NE 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, Neb.
ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1996 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Managing Editor:
Assoc. News Editors:
Opinion Editor:
AP Wire Editor:
Copy Desk Chief:
Sports Edftor:
A&E Editor:
Night Editor:
Photo Director:
Web Editor:
Doug Peters
Pauia Lavigne
Jeff Randall
Anne Hjersman
Kelly Johnson
Julie Sobczyk
Mitch Sherman
Joshua GWin
Both Narans
Tanna Kinnaman
Michelle ColHns
Antoine Osaka
Aaron Steckelberg
Dan Shattil
Amy Struthers
Tracy Welshans
Art Director:
General Manager
Advertising Manager:
Asst Advertising Manager:
Classified Ad
Publications Board
Chairman:
Professional Adviser:
Tilfiny Clifton
Travis Brandt
won waiton
473-7301
FAX NUMBER: 472-1761
The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board. Nebraska
Union 34.1400 R St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly
during summer sessions.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by calling
472-2588. The public has access to the Publications Board.
Subscription price is $55 for one year.
Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan. Nebraska Union 34, 1400 R St.,
Lincoln, NE 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, Neb.
ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1896 DAILY NEBRASKAN