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Our productivity increases by 26% without a smartphone nearby!

Internet, emails, applications, sms, calls... In a few years, smartphones have become so essential to us that they never leave us at all, not even (especially not?) at work. However, an experiment conducted by the universities of Würzburg and Nottingham Trent for the cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab revealed that the latter would significantly affect our efficiency and our concentration. Indeed, without our dear phones nearby, our productivity would increase by 26%.

The further they are, the more efficient we are

To reach these conclusions, the researchers called on 95 people (men and women) aged 19 to 56 and subjected them to a concentration test in four different circumstances:the smartphone in the pocket, placed on the desk , locked in a drawer and finally removed from the room. Result:the further away the device is, the more efficient its owner. When smartphones were out of the room, participants' productivity increased by 26%. Not negligible! But if the presence of our phones affects our concentration, another study has shown that their absence can also be a source of anxiety and therefore disconcentration (to a lesser extent, however). Alright, so what do we do? Well, according to Tanguy De Coatpont, managing director of Kaspersky Lab France, it would simply be necessary to alternate periods with and without telephones. In particular, he suggests leaving them aside during meetings. Well, it's not going to be easy, but we'll give it a try...