The Biggest Workplace Distractions (And How to Avoid Them)

Ever sat down to start a project only to remember you wanted to check the price of something on Amazon? 20 minutes and three unnecessary purchases later, you’re still not working.

92% of employers say lost focus is the top productivity problem in the modern workplace. And when employees are distracted, this affects overall team performance, morale, company profitability, and overall business success. The list goes on.

The good news? With the right strategies, we can reduce or eliminate workplace distractions entirely. This guide takes a closer look at the biggest distractions employees face in 2025 and some practical tips on how to reclaim everyone’s focus.

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

• The average employee takes 23+ minutes to recover from an interruption or distraction. This is known as the “cognitive switching penalty” — and it costs businesses billions.
• The biggest culprits are chatty coworkers, work-related notifications, cell phones and social media, and burnout.
• Remote work is not a distraction playground — 62% of managers feel their teams are more productive when working remotely or in a hybrid model.
• Time tracking tools can help time block and protect deep work while providing insights into interruptions or distraction patterns.
• Toggl Track can optimize your time and minimize distractions, no matter your work environment.

How distracted are workers these days?

The answer might shock you. 90% of employees are interrupted once per day, with almost one in four employees reporting being distracted over six times daily.

What might seem like an innocent interruption from a well-meaning colleague costs significantly more than the two minutes it took to answer their question. Research from the University of California Irvine shows it takes our brains about 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus on a task after an interruption. That’s because of what brain scientists call the “cognitive switching penalty”.

Basically, every time our brains are interrupted, we must regain context on the task we were working on. Think of it as a cognitive “loading” time. This is also why multitasking is notoriously inefficient — the same concept applies when switching unrelated tasks. Over the day, this “context-switching,” as it’s called, places a huge energy toll on our brains.

Big picture: Companies are losing small fortunes to distractions, an estimated $650 billion per year in the US.

The most common distraction in the workplace is…

……chatty coworkers. Workers contend with a host of different distractions. But 70% of workers say social yapping drained their focus more than anything else, according to Insightful’s report on “Lost Focus: The Cost Of Distractions On Productivity In The Modern Workplace.”

In an office, this might look like a colleague coming up and asking for help with a certain tool or document. They’ve already interrupted you — but they mean well and need help, so you invite them to sit. They settle in next to you, and you start resolving together. But as you’re discussing the work, you start chatting about other things (you know…the weather, the weekend, the kids), and suddenly, you’ve spiraled into a concentration dead zone, likely distracting those around you, too.

Unfortunately, there’s a virtual version of this for remote workers. An invite to a spontaneous Slack Huddle or repetitive notifications from colleagues who don’t understand digital boundaries can kill your focus instantly. If the team group chat starts diverging into gifs and memes, it’s hard to get back on track.

Other common workplace distractions

Losing focus at work isn’t always as obvious as a coworker stopping by to chat. Sometimes, distractions creep in without us even realizing it, pulling our attention away bit by bit. Here are some more to watch out for:

Constant notifications

48% of workers are interrupted by a notification every 30 minutes, and 45% of these notifications aren’t relevant to their jobs.

Our reliance on digital tools to complete our work means we’re juggling dozens of apps and tabs simultaneously. Slack, social media, a project manager, email, calendar, analytic tools, databases — our workflow is littered with software — and it comes with a lot of noise.

AI is an obvious solution many companies are exploring. According to Unily’s Digital Noise Impact report, 62% of employees believe AI can help them prioritize workplace notifications. Unily is looking at building an intranet super-app that consolidates and organizes your notifications.

Social media temptations

15% of workers admit to losing three to five hours daily to smartphone notifications and social media feeds. The lure of social media and ‘just checking’ what’s happening make platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok a quick escape that derails productivity.

Social media is designed to hook us — but beyond that, the curiosity around an unresolved notification carries mental weight. That cognitive mental load can lead to low-level anxiety, mental clutter, more procrastination, and less productivity.

Aside from the obvious strategies, like monitoring usage, activating “do not disturb” mode, turning off notifications, or deleting the apps themselves, companies can take more systemic and proactive approaches to combat this.

In an interview with People Management, managing director of Executive Connexions Steve Nicholls, suggests, “Foster a workplace culture that respects personal boundaries and encourages regular digital detoxes,” adding: “Leaders should model these behaviors, showing that it’s okay to disconnect from digital tools to concentrate on important tasks.”

Multitasking

Multitasking has the same effect on your brain as interruptions — research has shown humans can’t really do it. That’s because switching tasks drain focus and increases errors (in fact, studies show it takes longer to complete tasks when multitasking).

Instead, train yourself to maintain focus on a single task to deliver high-quality, error-free work. This can be hard since it’s easy to fall into the “busy, therefore productive” trap. But it’s a TRAP. Try these instead:

• Adopt the Pomodoro method (25 minutes of work, followed by a five-minute break) to stay on task
• Use the Covey Matrix to eliminate non-essential tasks from your to-do list and prioritize the rest effectively
• Take breaks every 90 minutes. Research into human cognition suggests the ideal length of time for concentrated work is around 90 minutes, followed by a 20-minute break. This aligns with our brain’s natural basic rest-activity cycle (BRAC.)

Unnecessary meetings

Let’s be clear: Standing meetings for the sake of standing meetings aren’t doing anyone any good.

If your meetings lack:

• An objective
• An agenda
• Action points and ownership

…they’re probably a waste of time.

Employees waste 79 hours a year in inefficient meetings, which tank their morale and productivity and cost the company about $9,000 per employee per year.

Intriguingly, meetings are more distracting in person (cited as the fourth worst distraction) than remote settings (considered the eighth worst distraction).

Ideally, organizations should normalize having boundaries around time blocks designed for deep work. Try implementing these “do not disturb” periods throughout the work day. Another approach is to try a company-wide “No Meeting Mondays” day.

If you really can’t avoid scheduling a meeting, make sure it’s short, well-defined, with a clear aim and agenda, and aligns the next steps with your expected outcomes.

Cluttered workspaces

Have you ever felt like you just can’t think in a messy space? There’s neuroscience to back that up.

Our brains like order and predictability. When visual clutter exists, the disorder competes for your attention. This means messy spaces can significantly reduce your ability to focus. Even something as simple as devoting five minutes to organizing your things and clearing away any mess could help you finish your project faster.

Political changes (or news in general…)

Non-stop news cycles can distract employees with breaking news, especially during major political or global events. In fact, 61% of employees agree that changes in their country’s political environment make them less engaged and more distracted at work.

Be mindful that employees have an increased risk of burnout during times of political turmoil or important election years.

With sensitive topics like politics, it’s important to design a clear company policy. For example, you might signpost 1:1 support for employees feeling distressed about current events. You might also clarify that employees should not discuss political events with their peers. The right balance depends on your organizational values and culture.

Burnout

82% of employees say they felt burnt out to some degree in 2024, with younger generations bearing the brunt — 87% for Gen Z, 85% for Millennials, and 57% for Baby Boomers, respectively.

Burnout makes workers more susceptible to workplace distractions and can lead to decreased productivity and morale across the team.

The main causes of burnout are systemic — long hours, overwhelming workloads, and difficulty balancing work and personal life. Broader solutions are needed to address this, such as:

• Creating holistic benefits packages, including mental health budgets and personal days
• Building a culture of openness and support around burnout, not fear and shame
• Setting realistic work expectations for employees
• Ensuring leaders value work-life balance and set a good example

Spoiler: Remote work isn’t to blame

Contrary to what the return-to-office crowd might have you think, remote work isn’t the root of all evil — in fact, it’s less distracting than in-office work.

A recent analysis showed remote work protects 62 hours’ worth of work that in-office teams lose to interruptions.

Major distractions in the office (think noisy coworkers, pointless meetings, and snack breaks) are the main culprits behind lost productivity. Open offices once praised for collaboration, are actually a breeding ground for short breaks and office gossip.

When structured well, remote work can boost productivity and well-being. Employees can eliminate office distractions and control their environment and work hours, resulting in better focus.

Can time management solve digital distractions?

Poor time management makes us more susceptible to digital distractions because our brains seek immediate rewards. Without a plan, we react to emails, notifications, and social media and put important work on the back burner.

Minimizing distractions is an uphill battle — we’re literally fighting against our brain’s reward system. Get around this by setting focus blocks or batching similar activities to boost efficiency. For example, you could limit email or Slack checks to scheduled times to prevent constant interruptions.

Effective time management is a skill and mindset shift that helps us regain control over our work, attention, and focus.

Create time blocks with Toggl Track

Toggl Track enables you to prioritize focus-heavy tasks while keeping interruptions manageable. Our platform empowers distracted teams to:

• Identify and manage distractions by seeing exactly where time is spent productively and not.
• Pinpoint repetitive interruptions or excessive multitasking habits in real-time.
• Reduce the temptation of distraction by keeping you accountable through transparent team time-tracking.

How much will you grow in a distraction-free workplace? Implement the tips we shared here and find out!

If you’d like to take it a step further, take your team’s time into your own hands with a free demo of Toggl Track.