You are in a meeting or you just plop down on the couch at home after a long day at work, but then…. Ping! Your smartphone demands attention. Do you just leave your phone alone at that moment or can you not resist the temptation and have to take a look? Because who knows, it might be your boss or that one customer you have been trying to get hold of all day or…and so on.
The example seems innocent, but before you know it, another half hour (or maybe longer) has passed. You answer a few text messages, check the department mailbox, check the notifications on your Facebook page or other things.
The smartphone has a great influence on our lives and on our productivity. The research of Ruigrok Netpanel shows how great that influence is. They conducted a study on how important the smartphone is for the Dutch. The results do not lie.
The figures show that almost three quarters of the 1,195 respondents consider the mobile phone very important. We are constantly online. Doing nothing is no longer an option. We check our phone while watching television, in the waiting room or on the train or bus. Because when we are not looking, we are afraid that we are not informed or that we are missing something important. The urge is great.
Despite being so close to our mobile phones, we are regularly annoyed by others who regularly special lead check their smartphones. As many as three quarters of the respondents indicate this.
Influence on your concentration and productivity
All these interruptions, no matter how short and innocent they are, are not good for our productivity. Because after such an interruption, you need almost half an hour to regain your concentration. If you add up all those short interruptions of one day, you see that a lot of productivity is lost. Losing productive time can lead to stress, frustration or working longer to keep up.