F-04 · Where the Week Goes
How long does it take to get back to a task after an interruption?
Field studies that watched people at work found it takes about 20 to 26 minutes to return to an interrupted task, usually after handling about two other things first. The often quoted "23 minutes" comes from this research and counts that whole detour.
20–26 min until back on the interrupted task, observed in the field
- Medium confidence
- 3 primary sources
- 2005 to 2007
- Last checked
Every study on one scale
Shaded: 20–26 min One figure A range in one study
Chart values as text
- Scale: minutes until back on the task. Shaded range: 20–26 min.
- Mark et al., 2005 (2005): 25 min 26 s
- Mark, Gallup interview (2006): 23 min 15 s
- Iqbal and Horvitz, 2007 (2007): about 20–25 min
Why medium confidence: Two independent research groups observed workers in the field and land at about 20 to 26 minutes. Both studies are from 2005 to 2007, the samples are small, and the groups define getting back slightly differently.
Sources
| Study | Creator | Year | Sample | Method | Figure | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No task left behind? Examining the nature of fragmented work (ACM CHI 2005) | Gloria Mark, Victor M. Gonzalez and Justin Harris, UC Irvine | 2005 | 24 information workers in two teams, over 700 hours of observation | Researchers shadowed each person for 3 days with second-by-second timing. Peer-reviewed. | 25 minutes 26 seconds to resume interrupted work, after an average of 2.26 other tasks “it took an average length of time of 25 min. 26 sec” | ics.uci.edu ↗ |
| Too Many Interruptions at Work? (interview with Gloria Mark) | Gallup Business Journal | 2006 | 36 managers, analysts, developers, engineers and project leaders, shadowed 3 days each | The researcher's own account of her shadowing study, in an interview | 23 minutes 15 seconds to resume interrupted work, with about two tasks in between “it was resumed, on average, in 23 minutes and 15 seconds” | news.gallup.com ↗ |
| Disruption and recovery of computing tasks: field study, analysis, and directions (ACM CHI 2007) | Shamsi T. Iqbal and Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research | 2007 | 27 computer users logged for two weeks | Logging software for windows, apps, email and chat alerts, plus interviews. Peer-reviewed. | About 10 minutes on the diversion after an email or chat alert, then 10 to 15 minutes more to return to the task “spent on average nearly 10 minutes on switches caused by alerts” | erichorvitz.com ↗ |
How often are knowledge workers interrupted?
Every few minutes. Microsoft's 2025 usage data counts a meeting, email or chat ping every 2 minutes during core hours for its busiest fifth of users, or 275 a day. In Gloria Mark's shadowing study, people spent about 3 minutes on a task before switching, and interrupted themselves about 44% of the time. A 2016 logging study found a median of 40 seconds on one screen before switching (mean 47 seconds).
| Study | Creator | Year | Sample | Method | Figure | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breaking down the infinite workday (2025 Work Trend Index) | Microsoft | 2025 | Anonymized Microsoft 365 usage data, 28 days to February 2025, outside the EU; top 20% of users by ping volume | App usage data, observed. Counts incoming pings, which do not always break focus. | Interrupted every 2 minutes during core work hours, 275 times a day “interrupted every 2 minutes by a meeting, email, or notification” | microsoft.com ↗ |
| Neurotics Can't Focus: An in situ Study of Online Multitasking in the Workplace (ACM CHI 2016) | Gloria Mark, Shamsi Iqbal, Mary Czerwinski, Paul Johns and Akane Sano | 2016 | 40 information workers at one US technology company | Window-logging software over two work weeks. Peer-reviewed. | Median 40 seconds of focus on one screen; mean 47 seconds “The median duration of online screen focus was 40 seconds.” | ics.uci.edu ↗ |
Numbers you may have seen
These figures circulate widely. Here is what the original source says.
- It takes 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption. The 23 minutes 15 seconds (Gloria Mark, in a 2006 Gallup interview) is the time until people returned to the interrupted work, after about two other tasks. It says nothing about how long concentration takes to come back.
- The 23 minutes comes from Mark, Gudith and Klocke, "The Cost of Interrupted Work" (2008). That paper is a lab experiment on email tasks. Interrupted people finished faster but with more stress, and the paper contains no 23-minute figure.
- Workers are interrupted 275 times a day (Microsoft). Microsoft's count covers its busiest 20% of users by ping volume and runs over 24 hours. It does not describe the typical worker.
- Attention spans fell from 150 seconds in 2004 to 47 seconds today. The 47 seconds is in Mark and colleagues' 2016 paper. The earlier values come from talks and essays; we did not open the underlying papers, so only the 2016 figure is used here.
More from Where the Week Goes
- F-0119–25%How much of the work week do knowledge workers spend searching for information?
- F-0253–61%How much of the work day goes to coordinating work rather than doing it?
- F-033–18 hHow many hours a week do people spend in meetings, and how much of it is wasted?
- F-0513–28%How much of the work week do knowledge workers spend on email and chat?
- F-063–4 hHow much time do people lose switching between apps at work?
- F-074.6–5.7 hHow much time do people spend redoing work that already exists?
The whole chapter · Chapter poster · All of The AI at Work Fact Book