Where does the 23 minutes figure come from?

Research led by Prof. Gloria Mark at UC Irvine found it takes on average about 23 minutes to fully return to a task after an interruption. It's an average, not a law: a quick ping you shrug off costs less, a real derailment can cost more. The refocus time is adjustable in the calculator's assumptions.

Is my data sent anywhere?

No. This calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded or stored on any server.

Distraction Cost Calculator

Research from UC Irvine puts the average cost of a real interruption at about 23 minutes of refocus time. Count the ones that actually pull you off task, and see what they add up to.
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Interruptions that pull you off task, per workday the real ones, not every ping

What your work hour is worth (optional, for the money figure)

Assumptions

Minutes to refocus Work hours a day Workdays a week

full work-weeks a year, lost to refocusing

1.9hours a day

9.6hours a week

58workdays a year

$13.8ka year, at your rate

Some interruptions you can't control. A colleague at your desk, a call you had to take. But be honest about the biggest source: the self-interruptions. The quick tab-switch that turns into twenty minutes, the "just checking" that becomes a detour. Those are the ones nobody sees, and they cost the same 23 minutes.

Hawser was built for exactly that gap. It runs on your PC, notices when a quick switch turns into a drift, and pulls you back before the refocus tax gets paid. It can tell working from wandering, so it stays silent until it actually matters.

See how Hawser works

How this is calculated

Time lost per day = interruptions × refocus minutes, capped at your work hours (you can't lose more time than you work). Weekly and yearly figures multiply by your workdays (48 working weeks a year, to allow for holidays). "Work-weeks lost" divides yearly hours by a 40-hour week. The 23-minute default comes from research led by Prof. Gloria Mark (UC Irvine) on the average time to fully return to a task; adjust it to match how deep your work is. Everything runs locally in your browser.