What does the research show about interruptions?

And how can we prevent them?

Have you been interrupted while focused on an important task? Disrupting the flow of work can be frustrating, causing you to have a more difficult time getting back to it.

While we've all felt the loss of concentration, research shows there's more at stake than a few lost minutes.

Wasted time

Working in an office environment can come with a variety of interruptions and distractions. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that on an average workday, an office employee can be interrupted every three minutes and five seconds. Once an interruption occurs, it can take up to 23 minutes and 15 seconds for employees to get back on track, even if it was less than a minute!

If occurring frequently enough, interruptions can cause you to stay late to make up for the time lost.

Working Faster to Compensate

Trying to make up for lost time can cause more problems than solve.

Gloria Mark, professor and member of the Department of Informatics at UC Irvine, found that employees who have shifted focus off a project will try to raise their work pace to make up for the lost time.

While it may seem to be a good idea, trying to compensate for time lost can result in more errors from higher levels of stress and frustration.

Lack of Quality

While losing time on assignments is the main result of interruptions, frequent disruptions can also decrease the quality of work produced.

A study conducted on college students compared the quality and accuracy of the work produced after the students were distracted.

The students who were interrupted for 2.8 seconds made twice as many errors in comparison to those who were not. When interrupted for 4.4 seconds, their error rates tripled.

Eliminate unnecessary interruptions with kuando Busylight!

The Busylight is a presence device that displays your status in real-time, informing surrounding employees of your status before they approach you. A simple color-code system indicates if the user is available, busy, in a call, or focused on an important task. Thus, eliminate potential distracting before they can occur.

Having a mutual code of conduct between employees and management is the solution to unnecessary interruptions or distractions. An easy a