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Facebook, Twitter, and Productivity
Does Internet Browsing Help You Concentrate?
Employers encouraging their employees to take breaks for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube... Is it possible?
The University of Melbourne published a study by Brent Coker from their department of management and marketing, claiming that the above listed breaks help sharpen concentration. The study went so far as to say that people using the Internet for personal reasons were actually 9% more productive. Coker even gave this an acronym, "WILB" for "Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing."
When this study was published, I was interviewed by ABC's San Francisco affiliate, KGO radio. They wanted my opinion on whether this WILB could be considered as a productivity tool. You can listen to my on-air response.
A premise behind this claim is that it is good to take breaks and in doing so you are better able to focus for the next activity rather than pushing through the day without pause. It is true that when you are stretched to the limit and keep going, you end up getting less done and often work longer to compensate.
I'm all for breaks after focused work time, but where I see a problem here is that we already have very little focused work time in a day.
Two basic scheduling skills in time management training include:
Reality is that few people actually work like this. The more common scenario is to bounce back and forth between activities. You end up distracted all day. Often you stay late or come in early because that is your personal "uninterrupted block." It is when you get most of your work done.
Adding more interruptions, in the form of checking Facebook and other social networking sites, into an already distracting day is not a productivity tool. If there ever was a process in itself that was specifically designed to distract us, it would be the Internet. The links, side ads, and animation are programmed to pull our attention in different directions. Taking a break by subjecting yourself to more distractions is not conducive to preparing for the next focused activity.
Coker does hedge in saying that this Internet browsing should be in "moderation," consuming less than 20% of total work time. 20% of an 8-hour day is 96 minutes. Do you feel that any employee who is surfing the Internet for up to 96 minutes a day is a productive part of your team?
If you are well-scheduled, you do benefit from a break. However, a more effective pause would be to get away from the computer.
Any of these would serve to help you de-stress and recharge. More computer time as a respite is not the answer.
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