Science Finds 8 Hour Workday to be Wildly Inefficient

If you think that working 8 long hours everyday is a cruel and inhuman way to make a living - you may finally have science to to back up your numerous complaints/scheduling suggestions to HR.  Research firm (and frankly, heroes) Draugiem Group recently discovered what we've all known secretly all these years - the current workday is far too strenuous and time-consuming for the human brain to take.

Draugiem has been keeping tabs on a select group of workers, with a special focus on how much time they spent on various jobs and their productivity levels.  After comparing these metrics, and crunching the data - they've found that the average worker can focus on a particular task for no more than 52 minutes.  According to Quartz At Work, that's when you need to take a break, a 17 minute break to be exact.  By following this pattern, the research firm observed workers who didn't let their focus stray to check Facebook, send unnecessary e-mails, or generally "space out."  After the (very specific) 17 minute break, workers were able to dive back in for another (almost) hour of work.

Theoretically, you could put in more than 8 hours of solid, distraction-free work using this method.  I probably wouldn't bring up that part when you are lobbying for a 52 minute workday.  Good luck!