Have you ever thought about how much time you lose every day, because of these Windows notifications?

An email comes in, or a Whatsapp message and you receive this little notification on the lower right side of your computer screen.

German & US Scientists have found after careful observation that the typical office worker is interrupted or switches tasks, on average, every three minutes and five seconds. And it can take 23 minutes and 15 seconds just to get back to where they left off:

We performed an empirical study to investigate whether the context of interruptions makes a difference. We found that context does not make a difference but surprisingly, people completed interrupted tasks in less time with no difference in quality. Our data suggests that people compensate for interruptions by working faster, but this comes at a price: experiencing more stress, higher frustration, time pressure and effort. Individual differences exist in the management of interruptions: personality measures of openness to experience and need for personal structure predict disruption costs of interruptions.

These Windows notifications are often overlooked time thieves. Switch them off, once and for all.

Watch the following screencast and you know what you need to do. In only three (3) minutes you are good to go.

Martin “Abolish those Time Thieves” Schweiger