Thirty seconds, then the phone

You open a work document and your hand is already reaching for your phone. This constant leak of attention is not a personal weakness, it happens to most of us.

“Loin d'être un signe de faiblesse personnelle, cette fuite permanente de l'attention touche bon nombre d'entre nous.”

47 seconds per screen

Gloria Mark of UC Irvine has tracked office attention for twenty years. In 2004 employees stayed on one screen for two and a half minutes. Today it is 47 seconds.

“Aujourd'hui, cette durée est tombée à 47 secondes.”

Each interruption costs 25 minutes

Work with Victor Gonzalez and Justin Harris found it takes about 25 minutes to fully return to an interrupted task, with two other activities usually slipping in first.

“il faut en moyenne 25 minutes pour y revenir pleinement concentré”

Why you feel wrecked

A notification is not a few lost seconds, it is closer to half an hour of concentration. That is why mental fatigue piles up on days you seem to have done nothing tiring.

Scrolling is not resting

More discipline and more app blockers push the wrong way. Videos, feeds and aimless browsing feel like a break while still working your grey matter hard.

“Le vrai repos mental ne se trouve pas dans une nouvelle sollicitation, mais dans son absence.”

Let your mind wander

Benjamin Baird's team at UC Santa Barbara gave people a creative problem, then a break. Those doing an easy task that let thoughts drift solved it far better afterwards.

“Ceux qui avaient pu laisser leurs pensées flotter pendant la pause résolvaient bien mieux le problème par la suite”