Many employees will spend time chatting with coworkers or perusing social media before beginning their work day. But does taking time to ease into the day have greater effects on overall work productivity?

Professor Ryan Vogel and Ph.D. student Anastasiia Agolli found that becoming quickly engaged in work helped employees achieve higher overall engagement throughout the entire day, which translated into increased daily productivity. Employees quickly became engaged upon arriving at work when they made an effort to mentally separate themselves from home and family concerns, and orient themselves to upcoming work tasks.