Stop Wasting Time — Start Building Positive Habits

Research from the University of California Irvine found that it takes an average of twenty three minutes to fully refocus after a single interruption. Most Americans are interrupted or self-distracted dozens of times per day. That means a significant portion of every workday is spent recovering from distraction rather than doing actual meaningful work.

A study published by the American Psychological Association found that multitasking — switching between tasks rapidly — reduces productivity by as much as forty percent. We think we are being efficient, but we are actually burning time and mental energy on transitions rather than deep, focused output.

According to research from Salary.com and Udemy, the top time wasters in daily life include excessive social media use, aimless internet browsing, unproductive meetings, excessive television consumption, and disorganized work environments. Together these habits can consume anywhere from three to six hours of an average person's day — time that most people say they desperately wish they had more of.