How often do you unplug from social media?

Microsoft looked into the impact that social channels such as Twitter and Facebook make to our productivity, and determined that these platforms lead to an average of four interruptions per hour, and that it then takes the average worker 23 minutes to get back to their assigned task.

Even multitaskers fall under the wheels of the social media monster – tasks done in parallel take the average person 30 percent longer than those done in sequence.

When you consider the hundreds of millions of Facebook posts, tweets and emails sent and received each and every day, it’s easy to see why. All-told, these kinds of interruptions eat up about 28 percent of the working day, costing the American economy almost $650 billion dollars a year.

(Source: Redeapp.com. Productivity image via Shutterstock.)