Work can be hectic and full of distractions, especially for subject matter experts, technical resources, managers, and others who frequently have people coming to them for help or advice.
Although culturally, we often place a high value on those we perceive as effective at multitasking, we really aren’t wired to work as efficiently when we’re juggling a number of tasks at once.
The Real Trouble with Interruptions
It can take a while to get back into the groove of what we were originally working on when we’re, interrupted, and that readjustment time can add up. Even when we ultimately finish that task, our work may still suffer.
According to an article for the Association for Psychological Science, “Plenty of research has shown that distractions cause people to take longer to complete a task, but now a team of psychological scientists from George Mason University has found that interruptions don’t just take up time, they also degrade the overall quality of people’s work.”
As one expert explains, that extra time and lessened quality have a major negative impact on businesses, and as Darren Shimkus, general manager for Udemy for Business, says:
“One of the most shocking findings that we uncovered was that 34% of employees like their jobs less when they find themselves in a distracting workplace and 66% of workers have never discussed solutions to address workplace distraction with their managers. When workplace distractions are reduced, whether through training or policies, we found that 75% of employees are more productive, 57% have increased motivation, and 49% are overall happier at work.”
It’s probably not surprising that distractions aren’t conducive to efficient work and that employees are happier when they aren’t distracted, but distractions come with the territory at any job, and we just have to deal, right? Not necessarily.
In a follow-up post, we’ll talk about some strategies to help minimize distractions at work.