WhatsApp Is Eating Productivity
11 May 2016
Lately, I have been observing that WhatsApp and other messaging tools are sucking out productivity from the workplace. People work with their phones next to their keyboards and are constantly distracted. This is counter-intuitive to focused “deep work” — multi-tasking is very counter-productive and every time you switch tasks you lose mental energy (switching costs).
Solution: keep your phones face down and check it once every couple of hours or so. Works wonders. Yesterday, in an hour I missed 9 WhatsApp messages, 3 iMessages and 4 phone calls. None of them were urgent.
By the way, check out this book called Deep Work by Cal Newport. After reading a sample chapter this is next on my reading list.