Intelligent people are more easily distracted at work, study claims

Credit: This story was first seen on The Telegraph

Workers who have trouble concentrating on a daily basis may be intellectually superior to their colleagues, The Telegraph reports.

Intelligent people may find it difficult to focus the mind because of all the amazing ideas constantly running through their genius brains, the research suggests.

The cleverest among us find it difficult to prioritise which idea to focus on first, with the distractions potentially leading to “a feeling of inadequacy and inability to deal with the workload as a whole”, according to psychiatrist Dr Ned Hallowell.

He added that the brightest brains can end up falling short of their own expectations and also of what their boss expects.

“Employers are always on the lookout for the brightest people available, however the difficulty to withstand multiple tasks and distractions in the office affects smart people in the same way as everyone else, if not more,” explained Bostjan Ljubic, vice president of Steelcase, who published the research.

“The ways in which we work are changing more rapidly than ever before and the brain is being subjected to stresses and distractions which can lead to overload and statistics show that distractions in the workplace are on the rise.”

The study of 10,000 workers from 17 different countries also found that the increased use of technology in the workplace has made it more difficult for staff to stay focused, with the average office worker distracted once every three minutes.