Research on Everyday Work | Knowledge & Practice

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Attention & organizing information

7 studies

Research on how switching tasks, unfinished work, checking email and external cues relate to attention and subsequent action.

Experimental research2009

Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks

Disengaging attention from unfinished work was difficult, and attention remaining on the previous task was related to performance on the next task.

Connection to this page

Provides background for recording where a task stands and what to do next before moving to other work.

Participants, methods, scope and bibliography

Participants and methods: Two experiments manipulated completion of the preceding task and time pressure, comparing attention and performance after switching tasks.
Scope and limitations: The findings concern experimental tasks. Generalization to overall workplace productivity requires further testing.

Sophie Leroy (2009). Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109(2), 168–181

DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.04.002

Experimental research2008

The cost of interrupted work: more speed and stress

Participants compensated for interruptions by working faster, but experienced more stress, frustration and perceived effort.

Connection to this page

Consider the burden of interruptions and repeated checking, rather than judging busyness only by processing time.

Participants, methods, scope and bibliography

Participants and methods: 48 people answered emails in a simulated workplace under no-interruption, same-context interruption and different-context interruption conditions.
Scope and limitations: Most participants were university students, and the simulated work was brief. No decline in quality was detected in this task.

Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith, Ulrich Klocke (2008). The cost of interrupted work: more speed and stress

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’08), 107–110

DOI: 10.1145/1357054.1357072

Online experimental research2015

Strategic offloading of delayed intentions into the external environment

External cues improved performance on intended actions. Their use varied with memory load and anticipated distraction.

Connection to this page

Provides background for placing cues such as sticky notes or resumption notes where they can bring an action to mind when needed.

Participants, methods, scope and bibliography

Participants and methods: Four experiments with 1,196 participants offered the option to place external reminders during tasks requiring an intended action to be remembered over a short delay.
Scope and limitations: Retention intervals in the main task were short, and the relationship predicting later everyday execution was small.

Sam J. Gilbert (2015). Strategic offloading of delayed intentions into the external environment

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(5), 971–992

DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2014.972963

Field experiment2015

Checking email less frequently reduces stress

Daily self-reported stress was lower during the restricted-checking week than during the unrestricted week.

Connection to this page

Consider checking times suited to the work before switching tasks whenever a message arrives.

Participants, methods, scope and bibliography

Participants and methods: 124 adults participated for two weeks, experiencing a week of checking email no more than three times a day and a week of unrestricted checking, in randomized order.
Scope and limitations: About two-thirds of participants were students, and the study lasted two weeks. Many outcomes were explored; the study does not establish an optimal checking frequency.

Kostadin Kushlev, Elizabeth W. Dunn (2015). Checking email less frequently reduces stress

Computers in Human Behavior, 43, 220–228

DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.005

Empirical research and intervention experiments2018

Tasks Interrupted: How Anticipating Time Pressure on Resumption of an Interrupted Task Causes Attention Residue and Low Performance on Interrupting Tasks and How a “Ready-to-Resume” Plan Mitigates the Effects

Anticipating time pressure on resumption made attention more likely to remain on the interrupted task. A brief resumption plan reduced the impact on the interrupting task.

Connection to this page

Closely relates to briefly recording where to resume the original work when switching to an urgent request.

Participants, methods, scope and bibliography

Participants and methods: Four studies examined anticipated time pressure after resuming interrupted work and an intervention that briefly planned how to return to it.
Scope and limitations: The findings depend on the time-pressure and interruption conditions studied. They do not establish effects for every interruption or for all outcomes after resumption.

Sophie Leroy, Theresa M. Glomb (2018). Tasks Interrupted: How Anticipating Time Pressure on Resumption of an Interrupted Task Causes Attention Residue and Low Performance on Interrupting Tasks and How a “Ready-to-Resume” Plan Mitigates the Effects

Organization Science, 29(3), 380–397

DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2017.1184

Foundational theory and computational model2002

Memory for goals: an activation-based model

Explained interruption and resumption of goals through interference from older goals, processes that maintain goals in memory and cues for later retrieval.

Connection to this page

Provides a foundation for understanding why locations and retrieval cues can help resume work, rather than relying on memory alone.

Participants, methods, scope and bibliography

Participants and methods: Developed a computational model representing goal memory through activation and associative cues, and tested it against response-time and error data from the Tower of Hanoi task.
Scope and limitations: This theoretical model is based on a particular cognitive task. It did not directly measure the effects of workplace notes.

Erik M. Altmann, J. Gregory Trafton (2002). Memory for goals: an activation-based model

Cognitive Science, 26(1), 39–83

DOI: 10.1207/s15516709cog2601_2

Workplace observational study2016

Email Duration, Batching and Self-interruption: Patterns of Email Use on Productivity and Stress

More time spent on email was associated with lower perceived productivity and higher stress. No association was found between batching email and lower stress.

Connection to this page

Review ways of working in light of workload, notifications and individual use patterns, as well as checking frequency.

Participants, methods, scope and bibliography

Participants and methods: Followed 40 knowledge workers over 12 working days, combining computer-use logs, physiological measures and daily questionnaires.
Scope and limitations: The observational design cannot establish causality, and productivity was self-rated. The study does not conclude that batching email is a universal solution.

Gloria Mark, Shamsi T. Iqbal, Mary Czerwinski, Paul Johns, Akane Sano, Yuliya Lutchyn (2016). Email Duration, Batching and Self-interruption: Patterns of Email Use on Productivity and Stress

Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’16), 1717–1728

DOI: 10.1145/2858036.2858262

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Attention & organizing information

Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks

Connection to this page

The cost of interrupted work: more speed and stress

Connection to this page

Strategic offloading of delayed intentions into the external environment

Connection to this page

Checking email less frequently reduces stress

Connection to this page

Tasks Interrupted: How Anticipating Time Pressure on Resumption of an Interrupted Task Causes Attention Residue and Low Performance on Interrupting Tasks and How a “Ready-to-Resume” Plan Mitigates the Effects

Connection to this page

Memory for goals: an activation-based model

Connection to this page

Email Duration, Batching and Self-interruption: Patterns of Email Use on Productivity and Stress

Connection to this page

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