Using social networking sites increases productivity

Can you believe that using social networking sites at work can increase your workplace productivity?

A new study just published by Australian scientists found that taking time to visit websites of personal interest, including news sites and YouTube, provided workers a mental break that ultimately increased their ability to concentrate and was correlated with a nine per cent increase in total productivity.

The study was performed by researchers at Australia’s University of Melbourne and coined the phrase "workplace Internet leisure browsing," or WILB.

The activity helps keep the mind fresh and helps put you in a better place when you come back to working on topic, the scientists said.

"People who do surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of less than 20 per cent of their total time in the office - are more productive by about nine per cent than those who don’t," said Dr Brent Coker, from the Melbourne Department of Management and Marketing.

What this study shows is that the social web is so incredibly powerful that even people who don’t know how to use it find themselves made nine per cent more productive because of it –– by accident.

-Agencies