Research on Everyday Work | Knowledge & Practice

Choose a field or search for a topic.

Research on “interruption”

4 studies

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

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

Back to the eight fields ↑

Find research to deepen how you understand work.

Choose a field or search for a topic.

Research on “interruption”

The cost of interrupted work: more speed and 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

Use this research in your workplace