"Gloria Mark, a professor found out that technology workers who she studied would make it only 11 minutes into a project before being distracted. It then took 25 minutes to return to the task post-distraction"
A recently read an article called A Day without Distraction: Lessons learned from 12 hours of forced focus by Cal Newport. The quote above was a part of the article.
I took a spreadsheet and made it count by minutes for a two hour block and a three hour block. I figured most people either worked 8 hours or 9 hours per day for which they get paid.
If you use the facts that she discovered(11 minutes of work followed by 25 minutes f non-productive work) and assume that the interruption is so brief, maybe a minute at best, the results are scary. I determined that in a two hour block an employee is productive only 33 minutes. For a three hour time block they were only 44 productive minutes.
In an average 8 hour day(4 two hour blocks) we average 132 minutes or productive time. For a 9 hour day (3 three hour blocks) we average 132 minutes. It makes no difference whether we are working 8 or 9 hours. the total output is 132 minutes. SCARY! Again this is on the generous side because the interruptions only took a minute to address.
Today's question is:
"What is your strategy to maximize your 132 minutes?"
A recently read an article called A Day without Distraction: Lessons learned from 12 hours of forced focus by Cal Newport. The quote above was a part of the article.
I took a spreadsheet and made it count by minutes for a two hour block and a three hour block. I figured most people either worked 8 hours or 9 hours per day for which they get paid.
If you use the facts that she discovered(11 minutes of work followed by 25 minutes f non-productive work) and assume that the interruption is so brief, maybe a minute at best, the results are scary. I determined that in a two hour block an employee is productive only 33 minutes. For a three hour time block they were only 44 productive minutes.
In an average 8 hour day(4 two hour blocks) we average 132 minutes or productive time. For a 9 hour day (3 three hour blocks) we average 132 minutes. It makes no difference whether we are working 8 or 9 hours. the total output is 132 minutes. SCARY! Again this is on the generous side because the interruptions only took a minute to address.
Today's question is:
"What is your strategy to maximize your 132 minutes?"
Your blog was part of the distractions of my day! Just thought you'd like to know.
ReplyDeleteWhen are you coming back to Northwest Indiana? My circulation stats have seen a sharp decline since you left! =)
Julie