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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR ANDHUMAN DECISION PROCESSES 109Why Is ItSo Hard to DoMy Work?SOPHIE LEROY2009
Named:
2009, Sophie Leroy, University of Minnesota
Published:
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, vol. 109
Measured by:
A word recognition test, then performance on the following task

Attention residue is the part of attention that stays on a task after the person has moved to the next one. Sophie Leroy measured it in 2009. People pulled away from an unfinished task performed worse on the following task than people who had finished the first one against a deadline. The previous task kept running in the background.

A workday of quick checks is a workday of stacked residue. Each glance at an inbox opens a task that stays open. The cost is paid during the following hour, on work that looked protected. Leroy found that residue shrinks when the first task is finished under time pressure, and when the stopping point is written down before the switch.

FIG. 1 TASK A, THEN TASK BGROUP 1 FINISHED A AGAINST A DEADLINETASK ADONETASK BGROUP 2 PULLED OFF A MIDWAYTASK ACUT OFFTASK BRESIDUE OF ASWITCHPERFORMANCE ON BGROUP 1GROUP 2

The Switch (2009)

Two groups move from Task A to Task B. One group finished A against a deadline. The other was pulled off it midway. The interrupted group does worse on B. Part of their attention is still on A.

47 Seconds

Gloria Mark logged how long office workers stay on one screen before switching. In 2004 the average was two and a half minutes. In 2012 it was 75 seconds. In her measurements since 2016 it is 47.

FIG. 2 TIME ON ONE SCREEN150 S200475 S201247 SSINCE 2016AVERAGE, OFFICE WORKERS, LOGGED
READY TO RESUMEWHERE IT STANDSDraft complete to section 3.STILL OPENTable 2 not checked against source.NEXT STEPCheck table 2. Then write section 4.SAMPLE CARDBEFORE THE SWITCH

Ready to Resume (2018)

Leroy and Theresa Glomb tested a one-minute fix. Before switching, the worker writes down where the task stands and the next step. The note lets the mind release the task, and performance on the interrupting work recovers.

Orienting Reflex

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