Look around your office. Are your employees slacking off? Or are they actively engaged in what they’re doing? If you’ve noticed your employees are constantly checking e-mail, or doing something that isn’t work-related, don’t rush to hand them a pink slip just yet! New research shows that the smarter you are, the harder it is for you to focus!
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Steelcase—a workplace solutions company—surveyed nearly 10,000+ employees across 17 countries and found that the most intelligent workers were often the ones who had difficulty focusing on the task at hand. These distractions can’t be blamed on Facebook, however!
“Employers are always on the lookout for the brightest people available, however the difficulty to withstand multiple tasks and distractions in the office affects smart people in the same way as everyone else, if not more,” says Bostjan Ljubic of Steelcase. This means that the most intelligent people are constantly being called on by their colleagues for their expertise, opinions, and advise, and are, therefore, constantly being distracted throughout the workday.
The research shows that the average office worker is interrupted every 3 minutes. What is causing all the distractions? Steelcase research shows that intelligent people report keeping up to eight Internet browser windows open on their computer at one time in an effort to juggle their workload. Other findings include:
- Employees reading or responding to e-mails at least 30 times per hour or every 120 seconds.
- After being distracted, it typically takes a worker 23 minutes to return to the original task he or she was working on, only to likely be distracted again.
- 49 percent of workers who are constantly distracted have difficulty managing their workload.
- Many workers pick up their smartphones on an average of 221 times a day, which is roughly once every 3 minutes.
The research also suggests that multitasking is inefficient and that it only works while you’re doing a manual task and a verbal task simultaneously—like walking and talking. So, what’s the best way to work efficiently? The researchers suggest that the most effective way to work is to immerse yourself completely in one challenge at a time. Or you can you use the tomato timer technique HRSBT has previously reported on!
What are some techniques you use to stay on track? Share it in our comments section below or e-mail us and it could be featured in the next HRSBT!
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