Why being distracted from work for 2 minutes, we spend 25

According to research by Professor Mark Gloria (Gloria Mark) from the University of California, Irvine, a person spends 25 minutes, to be exact - 23 minutes and 15 seconds to re-focus on the problem, which he did before the break. So every time, distracted by something, you spend time on it, plus another 23 minutes and 15 seconds. Let's say you want two minutes to check out Twitter, and as a result have lost almost half an hour of productive work time.

It suffers not only your performance, but also the emotional state. Professor Mark says that constant distraction reduces productivity, leads to stress and a bad mood.

How do we get distracted and why it is harmful

To conduct the study, Professor Gloria Mark put to unsuspecting employees of several technical and financial observers on a three and a half days. They meticulously recorded the duration of activity of any workers to the nearest second. It turned out that people switch from one case to another every 3 minutes 5 seconds.

In addition, the researchers observed that half the workers themselves interrupted, looking at Facebook for example. Not considered to be those cases where the worker distracted to discuss working with a colleague a question.

We like playing tennis, using the brain as a ball and tossing it back and forth. But unlike a tennis ball, the brain needs a little longer to get back to the starting position.

Distracted, we redirect our resources to the other side. For some time you need to look into something that you are distracted. Then the same amount of time it takes to re-engage in the solution of the problem.

The problem is not only in the time cost, but also in the fact that in this situation we can not dive deeply into the work. If a person every 10 minutes jumps from task to task, he can focus on it? He just does not reach the flow state.

Do not think that you are an exception

Let me guess, you're thinking: "Well, someone can jump from task to task, but I have a great deal with it. I can be multi-tasking while staying focused. " Do not be fooled.

One of the most influential management theorists of the twentieth century, Peter Drucker (Peter Drucker) has warned about it in his book "An effective leader," written in 1967.

Let us take for granted that we do not Mozart. So how do we focus on the task and not be distracted?

Learning focus of

You need continuous blocks of time for immersion in the task. Work only on a case. Even brilliant professionals need to focus on to do the job perfectly well.

You are sure to say, that the distraction from the work can be scheduled. For example: "I will focus on the work and check e-mail only at three o'clock." But the point is that, truly immersed in the work, you can completely forget about address verification. A Statement outlining a plan, you can easily fall into the trap and check email throughout the day, instead of working. And this is a problem for many.

For example, the same thing happened in of Intel. Employees did not have time when they could deeply immerse themselves in the solution of the problem and to give it their all. Then the managers of the company law was taken four hours a week to think. In these "reflections hours" employees should not respond to letters or distracted by something that can wait. This idea was a great success, the staff began to keep pace with what has long been delayed. For example, one of them prepared for a patent.

Now you know the true value of the distractions and multitasking and understand that working hours should be planned so as to minimally interrupted. Let your colleagues know about your hours of continuous operation and does not bother you at this time, but better - take over your experience.

And do not worry that you are not Mozart. Maybe you're the next Bach.