A recent WSJ story highlighted a research management paper entitled "Impact of Cyberloafing on Psychological Engagement" which surfaced the following somewhat surprising finding: allowing knowledge workers to surf the internet during work hours can boost morale and productivity.
Although it seemed counterintuitive to me at first (isn't aimless browsing, by definition, cutting into productivity?) upon reading her explanation, the lead researcher's hypothesis seemed quite reasonable: she theorizes that web surfers "usually choose to visit only the sites that they like—it's like going for a coffee or snack break. Breaks of such nature are pleasurable, rejuvenating the Web surfer;" on the other hand, email is "cognitively more demanding, relative to Web surfing, as you need to pay attention to what is said on the email."
Of course, that is presupposing that we pay attention to what is in our email. Either way, you now have a ready-made defense the next time your boss looks over your shoulder -- tell them you're boosting your productivity and morale.
And send them this link: https://bitly.com/mfg20blog ... guaranteed to boost productivity.
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