When asked to explicitly assess the time they lose to interruptions, employees consistently estimate between 40 and 60 percent of their most productive time. Another study looked at the impact of distractions like phone calls, text messages, email notifications, coworkers, and emergencies on efficiency.
What they discovered is that although interruptions often last little more than five minutes, it takes an additional twenty minutes, on average, to regain the focus, vigour, and passion we had before the interruption takes less than 20 interruptions (one per 25 minutes) to fully ruin the productivity of an 8-hour workday. Researchers at the University of California observed a team of NASA engineers as they worked together in isolation on the design of a spacecraft.
As a result, the traditional six-month spaceship design process was cut down to just nine hours!
That’s an increase in output of 18,200%!
Source: www.gallup.com