The cost of interrupted work (2023)
Interruptions cost 23 minutes 15 seconds, right? 2023-11-05 You’ve likely read lots of blog posts stating that it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to work after an interruption, context switch, or meeting. Thus, “do you have five minutes” ends up not only costing those few minutes, but instead about half an hour. But where does that number come from? I just wanted to quickly reference this fact to a colleague. Quick search for the reference, copy’n’paste it, in and out, 20 minutes adventure. I quickly found a reference to a paper. For sanity sake, I just wanted to verify where it states the 23 minutes. Open the paper, Ctrl+F for “23”, “no results”. Huh? Papers Most of the posts mentioning the number refer to the paper The Cost of Interrupted Work: More…
