Half of the distractions come from you!
23 Minutes and 15 Seconds
Gloria Mark, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, did some research on people who work with computers, like in IT and finance companies, for a whole week.
What they found is:
‘People switch what they’re doing about every three minutes and five seconds’.
And the astonishing fact is…About half of the distractions come from the person themselves.
Yep, we’re often the ones interrupting our own work.
Now, here’s the twist:
When you get distracted, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to what you were originally doing.
That’s a lot of time lost.
And not many people get into a really productive groove during a regular workday.
Imagine…
You’re working on a project, and suddenly, a Facebook alert pops up. You start scrolling through your feed, and while your phone is still unlocked, you jump into Instagram and then LinkedIn.
You even read a Quora article from Ian Mathews, which, let’s face it, is another big waste of time.
These interruptions mess with your time management. They throw you off track and make it hard to get stuff done.
“Time isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing” – Miles Davis
And that’s where…