With many organizations implementing return-to-work plans, now is a good time to consider adopting some of these fixes. Employers can take steps to minimize distractions that involve technology, as well as training and communication to help employees develop better habits. In spite of being surrounded by signals that can sidetrack us, there are strategies everyone can use to stay focused on important tasks. Distractions are different at home than in the physical work setting, for example, a child asking for homework help instead of a colleague seeking a project update.Īll of these distractions prevent employees from focusing on their work, leading to decreased productivity, stress, and burnout. Despite reports of increased productivity when working from home, there are still distractions to be addressed. These interruptions exist in both traditional workplace settings and, since the pandemic emerged, in employees’ home settings where many continue to work. An individual’s personality – the extent to which we’re drawn to engage with off-task stimuli – influences the intensity of an internal distraction.Įxternal distractions can include office noises, like coworkers’ conversations, ringing telephones, and equipment or mechanical sounds, and audible and visual alerts from the individual’s electronic devices.Įnvironmental distractions involve situations where workspaces are too hot or too cold or where workers are dealing with glare, making it hard for them to see their screens. Internal distractions can include a person’s urges, such as to check e-mails or voice messages, surf the Internet, or to respond to prompts that pop up on a computer screen. There are different types of distractions, according to Philip Beaman, a University of Reading psychology professor. In this article, we look at the extent of this problem and its effects on productivity and mental health and how managers, organizational leaders, and employees themselves can recognize and address the risks. The distraction of the e-mail steals some of my mental capacity or resources from my core task.”ĭigital distractions plague most of us these days, whether we’re in an office setting or working remotely. “If my working memory capacity is low, there’s a greater cost for me to switch back to do the work I was initially doing. “If I’m reading a document as I sit at my computer and I’m distracted by an e-mail and I shift my attention to go read that e-mail, that task switch could interfere with my ability to easily refocus on reading the document,” Brown says.

These “switching costs” sap our strength to think – to process information that we need to do our jobs well. Brown, assistant professor of industrial-organizational psychology at Wayne State University, whose research focuses on cognition in the workplace.īrown says that the constant shifts in our attention from one application to another and one screen to another relies on an individual’s working memory capacity, which allows us to preserve bits of information when we’re working on a single task. The problem employees face “is that distractions can interfere with the capacity to focus and dedicate the attention needed for the work that we’re doing,” says Shanique G. Then there's social media, where users are constantly inundated with distracting memes, newsy bits, images and videos – all of which have potentially negative implications for workers’ productivity and mental health. Instant messages on platforms such as Slack ping and blink with the expectation of quick replies to informative messages. Most of us know the familiar glow of multiple applications that require our attention each day at work.

Avoid distractions work from home