Phones and focus at work: why a ban isn't the fix

Banning phones treats the device, while the research on focus at work points to how often people are interrupted, and why. Much of the interrupting comes from work's own messages and from people's habit of checking, which a ban doesn't touch. Across 33 studies, a phone sitting nearby had no average effect on thinking (Hartanto et al., 2024). HR's levers are reply expectations, set times for messages, protected focus time and after-hours norms, plus private support people choose for themselves.

How much do interruptions cost focus at work?

The cost shows up as strain more than lost time, and it grows with how often people are pulled away. In a 2008 lab study, 48 people, mostly German university students, answered work emails while a "supervisor" interrupted them every two minutes by phone or instant message. They finished faster than when left alone, but rated their stress, frustration, time pressure and effort higher. The authors, led by Gloria Mark, concluded that "people compensate for interruptions by working faster, but this comes at a price" (Mark et al., 2008).

Over four days in May 2021, 50 employees of the Dutch branch of a global technology consultancy reported about nine interruptions a day on average. On days with more of them, more of their attention stayed stuck on the task they'd left, and that went with feeling more exhausted by the end of the day. How long each interruption lasted made no difference (van Zoonen & Scharp, 2025). It's one small, self-reported study, but it points HR at frequency. The researchers also tested a short note before switching, answering "Where do I stand?" and "Where do I resume?". It reduced the lingering, but the people using it reported more exhaustion overall, so it's an option to offer, not a rule.

Each switch is small, "sometimes just a few tenths of a second" in the American Psychological Association's summary of lab research, but the costs "can add up to large amounts when people switch repeatedly back and forth between tasks" (APA, 2006). The popular claim that refocusing takes 23 minutes isn't what the workplace studies timed; our guide to attention span explains what Gloria Mark actually measured.

Should we ban phones at work?

A blanket ban is a weak place to start, for three reasons.

The phone on the desk isn't the main problem

A 2024 meta-analysis of 33 studies found that a phone's mere presence had no significant effect on thinking overall (Hartanto et al., 2024). Our guide to procrastination at work covers the rest of that evidence.

Most checking travels with people

A 2021 study filmed 37 young adults in the UK, France and Germany: nearly nine in ten pick-ups began with the person, not a notification, and at work pick-ups were shorter but came just as often as elsewhere (Heitmayer & Lahlou, 2021). In a 2024 trial, switching every notification off for a week didn't change how often young adults checked their phones (Dekker et al., 2024).

Phones help as well as hurt

In a 2026 Pew survey of 9,750 US adults, 34% said their smartphone hurts how productive they are, and 30% said it helps; among adults under 30, 49% said it hurts (Pew Research Center, 2026). Phones are also how families reach people at work. The Dutch researchers make the same point about interruptions in general: "Simply banning intrusions may, therefore, coincide with unintentional, adverse consequences" (van Zoonen & Scharp, 2025).

What has better support is distance people set up themselves, which makes the reach longer. In a Canadian study, 221 university students spent one week with alerts off and the phone out of sight and another with alerts on and the phone close by, and they felt less scattered in the out-of-sight week (Kushlev et al., 2016). Alerts off on their own changed neither checking nor felt distraction in the 2024 trial, so distance may be doing part of the work, though no trial has tested it alone. The focus-time line in the agreement below pairs the two, without policing anyone.

Why do people keep checking at work?

Because work runs on messages. Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University and author of Deep Work, argues that when work moves through email and chat threads, people must keep checking to keep them moving, and nobody can opt out alone: "This is not a failure of habits, it's not a moral failure" (Huberman Lab, 2024). Expectations do the rest. In a 2017 study from Telefónica Research in Barcelona, 80% of 30 volunteers agreed they were expected to respond quickly (Pielot & Rello, 2017). Gloria Mark adds a social reason: she calls the internet "a marketplace of social capital" and our social nature "a very strong reason for why we're distracted" (Armchair Expert, 2022). Our guide to phone addiction explains why "addiction" is rarely the right label for any of this.

Does checking email less often help?

A little, in one experiment. In a 2015 study at the University of British Columbia, 124 adults spent one week checking email three times a day, with alerts off in between, and one week checking freely. In the limited week they checked about five times a day instead of about twelve and rated their days a little less stressful, while answering much the same number of emails (Kushlev & Dunn, 2015). It may not suit roles that run on constant updates, and the authors point at teams: "Organizations might be able to maximize workers' well-being by introducing interventions at a company-wide or team-wide level, thereby altering co-workers' expectations." Newport's version is to give messages their own blocks in the day: "So if your block doesn't include that, you don't do it" (Huberman Lab, 2024).

What can managers do about after-hours messages?

Write the expectation down, and have managers keep to it. In the American Psychological Association's 2016 survey of 3,511 US adults, employed people who constantly checked work email on days off reported average stress of 6.0 out of 10, against 4.4 for adults who didn't constantly check their email, texts and social media; that's a link, not proof of cause (APA, 2017). In a five-day diary study of 69 Dutch employees with company phones, heavier phone users reported more work spilling into home life, and evenings when people managed to switch off went with less of it. The authors' advice to employers is to "set up a clear policy including their expectations regarding the availability of their employees during after-work hours" (Derks & Bakker, 2014). Work on the phone late at night has also been linked with a more depleted next morning, through sleep (Lanaj et al., 2014); see our guide to sleep and productivity at work.

Newport, who is hard to reach by design, finds that "people don't get as mad as you would think. It seems to me that clarity is more important than accessibility" (Rich Roll Podcast, 2019). He has described ending each workday with a short shutdown routine, reviewing tasks and calendar before a set phrase, so work thoughts don't follow him into the evening (Newport, 2009). Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus, points to France's legal right to disconnect as a collective rule that frees people to make individual changes (Rich Roll Podcast, 2022).

A focus agreement your team can adapt

The evidence behind each line is modest (small studies, often of students or young adults), so start with a one-month trial in one team.

For the individual side, see our guides to reducing screen time, turning off notifications and how to focus.

Where a program fits

Team rules change the expectations. The reach for the phone, which is where most checking starts, is each person's own, and that's the part a program can help with. The 1h Protocol to Take Control of Your Phone, which also covers focus, is an education program of about an hour. Each employee builds a personal protocol from their own answers and their phone's own numbers, sets up the phone's settings live, and leaves with a lock-screen card and reviews on day 7 and day 14, followed by four short check-ins over 30 days. It's new, so there's no outcome data on it yet.

Companies buy program credits, one credit per program, and each employee chooses their programs. Our team works with HR to choose which programs to highlight, prepare the launch and review participation and the anonymous results. Your dashboard shows anonymous totals only, for groups of five or more, never an individual's programs, answers or protocol. Pair a small pilot with the agreement above and review both after a few months: request a quote, or see the programs.

Frequently asked questions

How much do interruptions cost focus at work?

Mostly strain. People interrupted every two minutes in a lab study finished faster but reported more stress and effort, and in a study of Dutch employees, days with more interruptions went with more exhaustion, whatever their length.

Should we ban phones at work?

It's a weak first step: a 2024 review of 33 studies found no average effect of a phone's mere presence on thinking, and most checking starts with the person. Agreed reply times, set message times and protected focus time have better support.

What should a phone policy at work say?

Expectations more than devices: reply times per channel, when messages are checked, protected focus time, after-hours rules and how urgent requests get through. It should also say that nobody's phone use is monitored.

Does checking email less often help?

A little: in one experiment, checking three times a day cut checks from about twelve to five and made days feel a little less stressful. It won't suit every role, and the researchers suggest setting the times as a team.

What can managers do about after-hours messages?

Put in writing that nobody is expected to answer after a set time, schedule messages to arrive in working hours and keep calls for real emergencies, the kind of clear availability policy researchers recommend.

Sources

This article draws on workplace and lab studies of interruptions, phone use and email, survey data from the American Psychological Association and Pew Research Center, and interviews with Cal Newport, Gloria Mark and Johann Hari.

• van Zoonen & Scharp, Managing daily work intrusions: an intervention to reduce attention residue and exhaustion (field experiment with daily diaries, 50 employees, Netherlands, data from 2021; International Journal of Stress Management, 2025)
• Mark, Gudith & Klocke, The cost of interrupted work: more speed and stress (lab experiment, 48 participants, CHI 2008)
• American Psychological Association, Multitasking: switching costs (research summary, 2006)
• Hartanto et al., The effect of mere presence of smartphone on cognitive functions: a four-level meta-analysis (meta-analysis of 33 studies, Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 2024)
• Heitmayer & Lahlou, Why are smartphones disruptive? An empirical study of smartphone use in real-life contexts (filmed field study, 37 adults aged 21 to 29, UK, France and Germany, 2021)
• Dekker, Baumgartner, Sumter & Ohme, Beyond the Buzz (preregistered randomized trial, 205 Android users aged 18 to 30, Media Psychology, 2024)
• Pew Research Center, About half of Americans say they spend too much time on their smartphone (survey of 9,750 US adults, May to June 2026)
• Kushlev, Proulx & Dunn, "Silence your phones" (two-week within-person field experiment, 221 university students, Canada, CHI 2016)
• Huberman Lab: Dr. Cal Newport, How to enhance focus and improve productivity (podcast episode, 2024)
• Pielot & Rello, Productive, anxious, lonely: 24 hours without push notifications (within-person study, 30 volunteers, MobileHCI 2017)
• Armchair Expert: Gloria Mark, On attention spans (podcast episode, 2022)
• Kushlev & Dunn, Checking email less frequently reduces stress (two-week within-person field experiment, 124 adults, Computers in Human Behavior, 2015)
• American Psychological Association, Stress in America 2017: technology and social media (survey of 3,511 US adults, August 2016)
• Derks & Bakker, Smartphone use, work-home interference, and burnout: a diary study on the role of recovery (five-day diary study, 69 employees, Netherlands, Applied Psychology, 2014)
• Lanaj, Johnson & Barnes, Beginning the workday yet already depleted? Consequences of late-night smartphone use and sleep (two experience-sampling studies of employees, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2014)
• Cal Newport, Drastically reduce stress with a work shutdown ritual (author's blog post, 2009)
• The Rich Roll Podcast: Cal Newport, Digital minimalism: why focus is the new superpower (podcast episode, 2019)
• The Rich Roll Podcast #661: Johann Hari, Why you can't pay attention (podcast episode, 2022)