While scanning the pages of CNNMoney.com I came across a great article that essentially proves the ubiquitous practice of multitasking which many associate with increased productivity in actuality decreases it.

In the Fortune article from 2006 titled “Be smarter at work, slack off” psychologists found in a five year study that “so-called multitasking can actually make people less effective at their jobs.” The reason? “The ‘time cost’ of refocusing your attention (from one task to another) may be only a few seconds with each switch, but the researchers found that, over time, it reduced people’s total efficiency by 20% to 40%.”

If this is correct and most business people multi-task for large chunks of their day it’s no wonder professionals have become accustomed to working far longer than the fabled 40 hour work week. They have to spend extra hours making up for those precious inefficient minutes squandered away each and every day. All of this leaves the work force overtired and overworked and companies left with declining performance.

Read this article and you might just think again about how you work.