In 2004, office workers stayed on one screen for an average of two and a half minutes before switching. By the late 2010s, Gloria Mark’s UC Irvine research put that figure at just 47 seconds — and half of all screen-attention periods lasted 40 seconds or less.

An office worker using a phone, laptop and notebook at the same desk

Two and a half minutes can feel almost spacious beside 47 seconds. Yet those are the bookends Gloria Mark uses to describe one of the longest-running changes her workplace research has documente...