Why you're easily distracted at work

Nearly half of more than 10,000 workers surveyed in 17 countries said they struggled to concentrate in the office. Photo / Getty

Intelligent people may have more difficulty in the workplace because they are easily distracted.

Research suggests they can have difficulty prioritising, meaning they may get flustered when they have several things to deal with at once.

The rise of technology has made it more difficult for workers to stay focused, with the average person checking their emails as often as every two minutes.

Nearly half of more than 10,000 workers surveyed in 17 countries said they struggled to concentrate in the office, according to research by workplace solutions company Steelcase.

The average office worker has eight windows open on their computer at any one time and is distracted roughly every three minutes, it found.

Smartphones took up twice as much of staff time in 2015 as they did in 2012, with most checking theirs around 200 times a day.

Psychiatrist Dr Ned Hallowell said smarter people had difficulty prioritising because they tried to deal with each idea as it arose, leading to "a feeling of inadequacy and inability to deal with the workload as a whole".

- Daily Mail