The Cost of Social Media Interruptions [Infographic]

We all know it: if you want to be productive, you have to switch off all social media and any and all notifications. I wrote about it before: we are not as good at multitasking as we think. This infographic shows some really interesting statistics on that topic:

• we are interrupted in our tasks on average four times per hour
• it takes us 23 minutes to get back to our original task
• parallel tasks take us 30% longer than sequential tasks

And my personal favorite: it takes the heart five days (!) to recover it’s natural rhythm after being cut off from email. Now that’s one I’d like to see proof for, but hey, it doesn’t sound that far off, now does it?

What’s the lesson from all this? First of all, it shows just how important it is to unplug every once in a while. I do this a couple of times a year, just take a social media break for at least a week. It’s healthy, let me assure you.

Secondly, it proves once again that preventing interruptions is of crucial importance if we want or need to get some work done. My trick is to set a timer for a certain period and work undisturbed and without taking a break till the timer goes off. Since I started doing that, my productivity has been amazing!

[Click for Larger]

Do these stats hold true for you as well or are your interruptions lower/higher?

[via Infographic List]

Rachel Miedema

Her Royal Highness of Communication aka Senior Staff Writer Communication

Rachel is a full-time writer and former youth pastor who devours books. She loves Star Wars, has a weakness for Belgian chocolate, hears the mountains call all the time, and is a walking encyclopedia of completely random facts. Seriously, just ask her.