Every person has a smartphone these days. Whether people are at work, in class or travelling, they love to check their notifications, social media newsfeed and even emails. These things may be fine but when it comes to the workplace, these are called the digital distractions. A recent report by The Economist unearthed that digital distractions are harming individual productivity at the workplace.

Digital Distractions Reduce Workers’ IQ

Dan Nixon of the Bank of England found that digital distractions are badly affecting productivity. He is a study noted that people check their smartphones twice a minute to once in seven minutes. This finding made him reach the conclusion that these types of distractions reduce the IQ level of works by ten points. This is huge and he compared is with uninterrupted brains who boosted their performance.

People Check their Smartphones Twice a Minute to Once in Seven Minutes

The experts who worked on the study also believe that losing IQ by 10 points is more like losing one night’s sleep or twice the effect of using marijuana. When the interruption at the workplace occurs, it becomes hard for the people to recover. The same study also found that people took 30 minutes on average to fully recover to the uninterrupted level of work.

It Takes 30 Minutes on Average to Fully Recover After an Interruption

These findings explain why people have become less productive these days. Another study by researchers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology analyzed the effect of technology on productivity. They learned that due to multitasking with the use of technology, productivity was increased. However, the digital distractions at workplace reduced the overall productivity to a drastic level. It also leads to increase chances of human errors.

Digital Distractions Also Lead to Increased Number of Human Errors

In the beginning, people did not realize this. In 19990s and 2000s, technology helped a great deal in improving productivity at the workplace. But with the passage of time, people started to realize the ignored sides of distractions. When the initial studies were done, they all agreed upon one statement that these distractions tumbled the productivity and growth because of the burden of these distractions.

Not Tracking Workers’ Performance is Also a Reason for Low Productivity

Along with many other reasons like reallocation of employees from high growth sectors to the stagnant ones, not tracking the performance of the employees also a reason why the industries around the world have seen low productivity. The study concluded with some practical recommendations for the companies. The employers should look out for options to monitor the staff, improve their productivity and reduce digital distractions at work.

Dealing with Digital Distractions at Workplace

The findings of these studies have revealed the dark side of technology and how it is impeding growth. Tasks are completed in more time that could have been saved for more tasks. Results are alarming and warn the companies to take it seriously. The studies also emphasized on using tracking tools in order to monitor the performance of the employees.

All companies, small as well corporate level, should formulate plans on how they can deal with the digital distractions at the workplace. One can be to introduce a policy that prevents the use of digital devices, smartphones, and gadgets while working. This will improve productivity to a great extent. But it also has some issues. The employees will waste their time on the internet using the computers that they use for work.