“Distractions are everywhere. And with the “always on” technologies of today, they take a heavy toll on productivity. One study found that office distractions eat an average 2.1 hours a day. Another study, published in October 2005, found that employees spent an average of 11 minutes on a project before being distracted. After an interruption it takes them 25 minutes to return to the original task, if they do at all. People switch activities every three minutes, either making a call, speaking with someone in their cubicle, or working on a document. Distractions are not just frustrating; they can be exhausting. By the time you get back to where you were, your ability to stay focused goes down even further as you have even less glucose available now. Change focus ten times an hour (one study showed people in offices did so as much as 20 times an hour), and your productive thinking time is only a fraction of what’s possible. Less energy equals less capacity to understand, decide, recall, memorize, and inhibit. The result could be mistakes on important tasks. Or distractions can cause you to forget good ideas and lose valuable insights. Having a great idea and not being able to remember it can be frustrating, like an itch you can’t scratch, yet another distraction to manage.” David Rock ‘Your Brain at work’
Today, just take time with the quote of David’s book and reflect on your work day and how it is affected by distractions. If you feel that you want to learn more, but the book feels too much to focus on, then this summary article may offer a litte more practical advice.
Tweet your response to @livedtime and be sure to include the hashtag #tds2727
Don't Want to Tweet Your Response? Really?