Social Media Affects Our Productivity At Work Big Time [Infographic]

Yesterday Richard published an article with 12 Tips For Increasing Productivity. As I read that list which the creator of the infographic put together, something was blaringly missing to me. Although one of the tips said to eliminate all communication, it was referring to the phone and email. It didn’t address social media at all. When it comes to productivity at work, social media can be one of the biggest challenges, at least to me.

It’s tricky because although productivity at work is severely affected by social media notifications all day, for some of us, social media plays a big part in our work itself, and it’s difficult to turn it all off.

According to this infographic called It’s Alive! The Social Media Monster by RedeApp.com (designed by NowSourcing), social media interruptions may be affecting your productivity at work more than you realize. The thing is, we don’t want to turn social media off because then we feel disconnected. We don’t want to be fully engaged in it either because then we feel like we aren’t meeting our goals. So, where is the happy medium? Some people are working diligently to come up with a win-win solution for this complex problem.

Studies show that when we are stressed, in a hurry, or “really focused on our work,” we put more pressure on our keyboards. Today I read on Geekosystem that there are two students in Japan who recently created a pressure mat to place underneath our keyboards. Supposedly within 80% accuracy, it can tell when we do not want to be bothered, and it holds all social media notifications during that time. Then, when the pressure lightens up on our keyboard, our notifications come back. What a great idea! You can read more about that on New Scientist.

In the meantime, if you are having trouble with your productivity at work, have a look at this infographic and determine if your beloved social media might be the main culprit. It’s disturbing, isn’t it? Social media is so complicated sometimes. We can love it and hate it all in the same day, and many times that depends on what we want to accomplish.