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A test of the quiet hour as a time management technique
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Introduction This field study tested the effectiveness of quiet hours (an hour free of any phone calls, visitors or incoming emails). Objective Based on interruptions research and on a behavioral decision-making approach to time management, we argue that establishing quiet hours is a precommitment strategy against predominantly harmful interruptions. Furthermore, conscientiousness and the use of other time management techniques should moderate the effects of the quiet hour. Method We tested this by using a two-week experimental diary study with managers as participants. Results Multi-level analyses showed that a quiet hour improved the performance on a task worked on during the quiet hour in comparison to a similar task on a day without a quiet hour. Furthermore, overall performance was higher on days with a quiet hour than on days without one. Conscientiousness acted as a moderator, unlike the use of other time management techniques. Conclusion These results imply that more people should consider implementing a quiet hour, especially if they are non-conscientious.
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... Previous studies on job crafting and human factors provide examples of interventions that have focused on the cognitive ergonomic themes relevant to our intervention, that is reducing disruptions, interruptions, and information overload. For example, quiet hours free of any phone calls, visitors, or incoming emails aim to reduce disruptions and interruptions and to enable the employee to focus on the task at hand; results show improvement in performance during the quiet hour, but also in overall day-level performance [31], for contrasting results, see [32,33]. Furthermore, better practices for handling new emails can reduce information overload and stress, for example, checking emails three times rather than unlimited times a day leads to lower daily stress which predicts better perceived productivity [34]. ...
... These conditions are typical in many fields and notable risks for work performance [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Previous results also suggest that it is possible to change these conditions, which may have positive effects on cognitive load and its consequences, but the research evidence is not yet convincing [2,31,33,34]. Our first research question thus is whether a cognitive ergonomics intervention programme focusing on disruptions, interruptions, and information overload is effective and whether it affects the primary outcome measures related to cognitively straining working conditions. ...
... Although the cognitive strain related to work environments and ways of working is widely recognized and actively discussed as a notable risk factor, few studies have directly and systematically aimed to create conditions that provide better support for humans to perform cognitively demanding tasks (e.g. [19,24,[31][32][33][34]). Knowledge of effects of cognitive strain on work performance and employee wellbeing, as well as intervention research on managing work conditions to support performance and well-being, needs to be expanded. ...
Background:
Cognitively straining conditions such as disruptions, interruptions, and information overload are related to impaired task performance and diminished well-being at work. It is therefore essential that we reduce their harmful consequences to individual employees and organizations. Our intervention study implements practices for managing the cognitive strain typical to office work tasks and working conditions in offices. We will examine the effects of a cognitive ergonomics intervention on working conditions, workflow, well-being, and productivity.
Methods/design:
The study is a stratified cluster randomized trial. The clusters are work units, for example, teams or offices. The four participating organizations entered a total of 36 clusters, and we invited all 1169 knowledge employees of these units to participate. We randomly allocated the clusters into an intervention group (cognitive ergonomics) or an active control group (recovery supporting). We invited an additional 471 participants to join a passive control group only for baseline and follow-up measurements, with no intervention. The study consists of a baseline survey and interviews and observations at the workplace, followed by an intervention. It starts with a workshop defining the specific actions for the intervention implementation stage, during which we send task reminder questionnaires to all employees to support behaviour change at the individual and team levels. The primary outcome measure is perceived frequency of cognitive strain from working conditions; the secondary outcome measures include subjective cognitive load, well-being, workflow/productivity, and cognitive stress symptoms. Process evaluation uses the quantitative and qualitative data obtained during the implementation and evaluation phases. The baseline measurements, intervention phase, and end-of-treatment measurements are now complete, and follow-up will continue until November 2019.
Discussion:
There is a need to expand the research of cognitive strain, which poses a considerable risk to work performance and employee well-being in cognitively demanding tasks. Our study will provide new information about factors that contribute to such strain. Most importantly, the results will show which evidence-based cognitive ergonomic practices support work performance in knowledge work, and the project will provide concrete examples of how to improve at work.
Trial registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03573674. Registered 29 June 2018.
... The promotion of a healthy working environment must include temporal, spatial and mental separation of work and private life components [11]. This can be done by implementing time management strategies such as organizing the working time, including breaks and quiet moments [12], and through the creation of an ergonomic workplace and a working environment with reduced distractions [11]. In order to foster attention and time management, solutions such as browser extensions and mobile apps are available. ...
... On the other hand, variables that can promote a balanced working life and attention management, such as quiet working hours [12] and break times [11], can also be tracked through HCI. Though the frequency and duration of breaks is not consensual in the literature, we propose to collect this data in order to have a broad set of variables and to meet this gap in the literature. ...
The project Prevention of Occupational Disorders in Public Administrations based on Artificial Intelligence (PrevOccupAI) aims to identify and characterize profiles of work-related disorders (WRD) and daily working activities profiles. WRD have major impacts on the well-being and quality of life of individuals, as on productivity and absenteeism. Thus, to increase individuals’ quality of life and productivity, a tool focusing on human attention is being developed, integrating the insights of workers of AT (Autoridade Tributária) and the literature on attention and time management. By inputting Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and work-related variables into an Artificial Intelligence (AI) layer, a dashboard system will provide workers’ information on causes of loss of focus they may not be aware of. Additionally, another layer will provide Recommendations, such as mindfulness-based tips, to assist in the management of feelings, emotions or work-related concerns, possibly increasing awareness and focus on the present. This manuscript presents the preliminary design of this tool.
... Trougakos & Hideg, 2009). Examples of such strategies may include going for a walk to clear their mind or to seek inspiration (Oppezzo & Schwartz, 2014), incorporating "quiet hours" in a workday to be able to focus (König et al., 2013), or listening to their favorite music while working to promote an energized and driven mindset (Lesiuk, 2005). As such, organizations may aim to complement valuable top-down approaches to promote creativity with the opportunity for a "bottom-up" approach in which individuals take control themselves in creating healthy circumstances for creativity to arise. ...
Most research on employee creativity has been focused on relatively distal antecedents, e.g., personality or job characteristics, which has resulted in top‐down organizational approaches to promote employee creativity. However, such approaches overlook the self‐regulating potential of employees and may not explain intra‐individual fluctuations in creativity. In the present research, we build on proactive motivation theory to examine how employees may promote their own creativity on a daily basis through the use of proactive vitality management (PVM). To better understand the PVM – creativity link, we zoom in on this process by examining the role of mindfulness as an underlying mechanism. In two daily diary studies, employees from the US (N = 133 persons, n = 521 data points) and the creative industry in Germany (N = 62 persons, n = 232 data points) reported on their use of PVM and states of mindfulness for five consecutive workdays. Additionally, participants completed a daily creativity test (brainstorming task) in Study 1, while supervisors rated participants’ daily creative work performance in Study 2. In both studies, multilevel analyses showed that daily PVM was positively related to creative performance through daily mindfulness, supporting our hypotheses. These replicated findings suggest that individuals may bring themselves in a cognitive, creative state of mind on a daily basis, emphasizing the importance of proactive behavior in the creative process.
... Variables contributing to cognitive strain and closely related to attention include those that directly disrupt the primary task the worker is attending to, such as interruptions from colleagues [3], notifications [51], or environmental constraints [52]. On the other hand, variables that can promote a balanced working life and attention management, such as quiet working hours [53] and break times [54], can also be tracked through HCI. With all of the variables collected in the last procedure of this study and using the built models as a ground truth of attention, a set of strong correlations between the interaction with the computer and attention could be found. ...
Occupational disorders considerably impact workers’ quality of life and organizational productivity, and even affect mortality worldwide. Such health issues are related to mental health and ergonomics risk factors. In particular, mental health may be affected by cognitive strain caused by unexpected interruptions and other attention compromising factors. Risk factors assessment associated with cognitive strain in office environments, namely related to attention states, still suffers from the lack of scientifically validated tools. In this work, we aim to develop a series of classification models that can classify attention during pre-defined cognitive tasks based on the acquisition of biosignals to create a ground truth of attention. Biosignals, such as electrocardiography, electroencephalography, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy, were acquired from eight subjects during standard cognitive tasks inducing attention. Individually tuned machine learning models trained with those biosignals allowed us to successfully detect attention on the individual level, with results in the range of 70–80%. The electroencephalogram and electrocardiogram were revealed to be the most appropriate sensors in this context, and the combination of multiple sensors demonstrated the importance of using multiple sources. These models prove to be relevant for the development of attention identification tools by providing ground truth to determine which human–computer interaction variables have strong associations with attention.
... Turning to performance, time management is associated with higher academic performance (Britton & Tesser, 1991;Hensley et al., 2018;Trueman & Hartley, 1996), higher job performance (Claessens et al., 2004;König et al., 2013;Macan et al., 1990;Nonis et al., 2011Nonis et al., , 2005Orpen, 1994), reduced procrastination (Häfner et al., 2014a;Van Eerde, 2003), increased time spent on tasks that are high priority (Hall & Hursch, 1982) and increased creativity (Zampetakis et al., 2010). Time management has also been shown to reduce students' anxiety with test taking (Jenaabadi et al., 2016). ...
We argue that time management training can help develop students’ self-control, which helps students spend less time on leisure activities and more time on activities that are associated with student success. The imposition of measures meant to reduce or stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus provided an opportunity where the impact of time management training on student behavior could be assessed when there was a significant change in the learning environment, from in person learning to online learning. The transition to online learning was associated with an increase in unstructured time and the removal of time norms for students. Using an experimental study design, we find that students that receive time management training spend more time on activities associated with student success. Interestingly, when there was a transition to online learning, students increased the amount of time they spent on leisure activities. However, when compared to the control group, students that received time management training spent more time on activities associated with student success, such as studying and eating, and less time on activities that hinder success, such as video gaming and running errands. Our results suggest that time management training helps students work more effectively in online learning environments.
... Unexpected interruptions during the workday diminish energy (Lin, Kain, & Fritz, 2013) and worsen performance in complex tasks (Speier, Vessy, & Valacich, 2003). Some studies have shown that creating "architectural privacy" in work spaces by adding distance between desks (Sundstrom et al., 1980), providing daily "quiet hours" (König, Kleinmann, & Höhmann, 2013), or creating opportunities for intermittent (rather than constant) collaboration (Bernstein, Shore, & Lazer, 2018) may increase performance. Job designs that support extended concentration on priority tasks should support effortful striving for long-term goals. ...
Grit—the tendency to pursue especially long-term goals with both passion and perseverance—has been shown to predict high achievement in a range of individual performance domains. We make a case for introducing the concept of grit to the organizational behavior literature. To begin, we elaborate the conceptual foundations of grit, highlighting ways in which grit differs from related traits and situating grit in the broader literature on goal pursuit. We then discuss three organizational antecedents—leadership, culture, and job design—that can encourage grit at work. Next, we discuss how and under what circumstances encouraging grit can improve workplace outcomes such as employee retention, work engagement, and job performance. We conclude with suggestions for future research at the intersection of psychology and organizational behavior.
... Die gewonnene Zeit könnten sie insbesondere mit Aufgaben verbringen, die sonst im Alltag gerne liegen bleiben, weil sie nie dringend sind, aber doch wichtig. Solch eine Zeitmanagementstrategie bezeichnet man als "stille Stunde", und sie hat sich empirisch als effektiv erwiesen (König, Kleinmann & Höhmann, 2013). ...
Dieses Kapitel gibt einen Überblick, welche unterschiedlichen Probleme das Managen der Zeit oft so schwierig macht und welche Besonderheiten das Zeitmanagement von Führungskräften aufweist. Dieser Überblick ist zwar allgemein gehalten, basiert aber auf psychologischer Forschung, auch wenn wir Quellen nur sparsam verwendet (für Details siehe Kleinmann & König, 2018, sowie Aeon & Aguinis, 2017).
Sales managers often take on the dual responsibilities of managing a sales team and selling to customers. This practice raises questions about how sales managers’ time allocation to managing and selling activities affects sales team performance. Building on qualitative findings, this research first highlights and categorizes activities that are regularly competing for the limited time resources of today’s sales managers. Our qualitative results reveal a prevalence of sales managers taking a “hybrid” approach to managing their sales teams by regularly allocating time toward both managing and selling activities. Through a resource allocation lens, we investigate how the time allocation decisions of these hybrid sales managers influence sales team performance. Our findings underscore the importance of effective time management for sales managers across a core set of leader behaviors, including managing people, managing information (planning and analysis), customer interaction, and administrative tasks. Ultimately, boundary conditions suggest counterintuitive implications of team experience on the value derived from various manager activities. Findings suggest that when managing more (less) experienced teams, managers should focus on spending more time on managing people (customer interaction).
In 3 prior meta-analyses, the relationship between the Big Five factors of personality and job criteria was investigated. However, these meta-analyses showed different findings. Furthermore, these reviews included studies carried out only in the United States and Canada. This study reports meta-analytic research on the same topic but with studies conducted in the European Community, which were not included in the prior reviews. The results indicate that Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability are valid predictors across job criteria and occupational groups. The remaining factors are valid only for some criteria and for some occupational soups. Extraversion was a predictor for 2 occupations, and Openness and Agreeableness were valid predictors of training proficiency. These findings are consistent with M. R. Barrick and M. K. Mount (1991) and L. M. Hough, N. K. Eaten, M. D. Dunnette, J. D. Kamp, and R. A, McCloy (1990). Implications of the results for future research and the practice of personnel selection are suggested.
When offered a choice (Choice Y) between a small immediate reward (2-sec exposure to grain) and a large reward (4-sec exposure to grain) delayed by 4 sec, pigeons invariably preferred the small, immediate reward. However, when offered a choice (Choice X) between a delay of T seconds followed by Choice Y and a delay of T seconds followed by restriction to the large delayed reward only, the pigeon's choice depended on T. When T was small, the pigeons chose the alternative leading to Choice Y (and then chose the small, immediate reward). When T was large, the pigeons chose the alternative leading to the large delayed reward only. The reversal of preference as T increases is predicted by several recent models for choice between various amounts and delays of reward. The preference for the large delayed alternative with long durations of T parallels everyday instances of advance commitment to a given course of action. Such commitment may be seen as a prototype for self-control.
Are the moods and subjective performances of professional sports players associated with the ongoing collective moods of their teammates? Players from 2 professional cricket teams used pocket computers to provide ratings of their moods and performances 3 times a day for 4 days during a competitive match between the teams. Pooled time-series analysis showed significant associations between the average of teammates' happy moods and the players' own moods and subjective performances; the associations were independent of hassles and favorable standing in the match. Mood linkage was greater when players were happier and engaged in collective activity. An intraperson analysis of data from these teams and 2 other teams showed that mood linkage was also greater for players who were older, more committed to the team, and more susceptible to emotional contagion. The results support and extend previous findings concerning mood linkage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A typical time management phenomenon is the rush before a deadline. Behavioral decision making research can be used to predict how behavior changes before a deadline. People are likely not to work on a project with a deadline in the far future because they generally discount future outcomes. Only when the deadline is close are people likely to work. On the basis of recent intertemporal choice experiments, the authors argue that a hyperbolic function should provide a more accurate description of the deadline rush than an exponential function predicted by an economic model of discounted utility.
Sales research to date has focused on coping styles as measured by problem-focused coping (PFC) and emotion-focused coping (EFC), but it has excluded time management perceptions and behaviors as ways of coping with stress (Srivastava and Sager 1999; Strutton and Lumpkin 1993). This study examines a coping model that integrates EFC, PFC, and time management behaviors in the rubric of a profile. The profile allows for practice of several coping behaviors simultaneously. Using data gained from salespeople, four tentative coping strategy profiles are developed and examined relative to personal characteristics and job outcomes. Study results suggest that salespeople who are able to better handle stress use time management behaviors more often in addition to using high levels of PFC and low levels of EFC.
Abstract Interruptions are typically considered disruptive for organizational members, hindering their performance,and effectiveness. Although interruptions can have negative effects on work performance, they also can serve in multiple ways as facilitators of performance. In this paper, we discuss four key types of interruptions that have different causes and consequences: intrusions, breaks, distractions, and discrepancies. Each type of interruption can occur during the workday, and each type has different implications for individual effectiveness. We delineate the principle features of each of the four types of interruptions and specify when each kind of interruption is likely to have positive or negative consequences,for the person being interrupted. By discussing in detail the multiple kinds of interruptions and their potential for positive or negative consequences, we provide a means for organizational scholars to treat interruptions and their consequences,in more discriminating ways. 2 Interruptions are generally defined as incidents or occurrences that obstruct or delay organizational members as they attempt to make progress on work tasks and, thus, are typically
This study investigated the relation of the "Big Five" personality di- mensions (Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Consci- entiousness, and Openness to Experience) to three job performance criteria (job proficiency, training proficiency, and personnel data) for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skilled/semi-skilled). Results indicated that one dimension of person- ality. Conscientiousness, showed consistent relations with all job per- formance criteria for all occupational groups. For the remaining per- sonality dimensions, the estimated true score correlations varied by occupational group and criterion type. Extraversion was a valid pre- dictor for two occupations involving social interaction, managers and sales (across criterion types). Also, both Openness to Experience and Extraversion were valid predictors of the training proficiency criterion (across occupations). Other personality dimensions were also found to be valid predictors for some occupations and some criterion types, but the magnitude of the estimated true score correlations was small (p < .10). Overall, the results illustrate the benefits of using the 5- factor model of personality to accumulate and communicate empirical findings. The findings have numerous implications for research and practice in personnel psychology, especially in the subfields of person- nel selection, training and development, and performance appraisal.
Time management problems such as choosing urgent instead of important tasks are prevalent but so far they lack a theoretical explanation. The authors argue that time management implies a choice about the use of time. Therefore rational choice theory as a normative theory of choice is relevant to time management, and so is behavioural decision-making research focusing on biases and heuristics that make people deviate from the prediction of rational choice theory. The authors show how these biases and heuristics lead to non-efficient time management. In particular, steep and hyperbolic time discounting is explained and its implications for time management as well as for time management training are presented. Several propositions about the importance of individual and situational variables are also put forward.
A basic stationarity axiom of economic theory assumes stable preference between two deferred goods separated by a fixed time To test this assumption, we offered subjects choices between delayed rewards, while manipulating the delays to those rewards Preferences typically reversed with changes in delay, as predicted by hyperbolic discounting models of impulsiveness Of 36 subjects, 34 reversed preference from a larger, later reward to a smaller, earlier reward as the delays to both rewards decreased We conclude that the stationarity axiom is not appropriate in models of human choice