We’re almost always online here at Gadgets Magazine, but not all companies enjoy such lax internet restrictions like us. Some places restrict access to the internet to only a couple of productivity sites or more often than not, bans the use of the internet completely. Well, it seems that restricting web access is counterproductive – a study done by Don J.Q. Chen and Vivien K.G Lim of the National University of Singapore entitled “Impact of Cyberloafing on Psychological Engagement” says that web browsing refreshes tired workers and improves productivity.
Here’s how they did it: they formed three groups which basically did the same thing, which was to highlight all the letter e’s in a particular article. The two groups – rest-break and web-browse – would then take a break after 20 minutes of doing the task, with the rest-break group being able to do anything they wished except browse the web and the web-browse group, obviously browse any website they wanted. The last group (control) was assigned to another simple task after the first.
The researchers observed that the people who browsed the web were significantly more productive and effective at the tasks than those in the other two groups and reported lower levels of mental exhaustion, boredom and higher levels of engagement.
So the next time your boss cites you for browsing the web at work, you can always say it’s making you more productive – just don’t blame us when he doesn’t see it your way.
Source: Wall Street Journal