{"id":676866,"date":"2020-07-30T16:29:28","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T23:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&#038;p=676866"},"modified":"2023-02-14T14:54:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T22:54:14","slug":"managing-attention-and-productivity-in-distracting-mediated-workspaces-a-research-path-for-multitasking-in-mediated-environments","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/managing-attention-and-productivity-in-distracting-mediated-workspaces-a-research-path-for-multitasking-in-mediated-environments\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing attention and productivity in distracting mediated workspaces: a research path for multitasking in mediated environments"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>ABSTRACT<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The rapid shift to remote working environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing people to work in a mediated workspace that causes (in)attention and productivity issues. Previous attention research mainly revealed that divided attention and simultaneously conducting multiple tasks are cognitively harmful to task performance. In this paper however, we use a media psychology perspective to rethink the cause, process, and outcomes of multitasking, and propose a counterintuitive notion that strategic distraction could potentially be beneficial in a mediated workspace: (1) strategically adding another task can motivate people to continue their current work by stimulating emotion; (2) during the multitasking process, the additional task can &#8220;herd&#8221; attentional resources and inhibit task-irrelevant distractions; (3) new measures that evaluate the breadth of multitask processing (e.g., creativity, flexibility) might reveal beneficial outcomes that wouldn\u2019t be discovered in a single-task condition. Future directions of the multitasking research should systematically connect causes, processes, and outcomes together rather than looking at them in isolation.<\/p>\n<h3>Keywords<\/h3>\n<p>attention, productivity, multitasking, secondary task, process, cause and effects<\/p>\n<div class=\"yt-consent-placeholder\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Video playback requires cookie consent\" data-video-id=\"mYxRu7Gsaos\" data-poster=\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/mYxRu7Gsaos\/maxresdefault.jpg\"><iframe aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" title=\"Managing Attention and Productivity Using Multitasking - NFW2020\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/mYxRu7Gsaos?feature=oembed&rel=0&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__overlay\"><button class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__play\"><svg width=\"42\" height=\"42\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><circle fill=\"#000\" opacity=\".556\" cx=\"21\" cy=\"21\" r=\"21\"\/><path stroke=\"#FFF\" d=\"M27.5 22l-12 8.5v-17z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><span class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__label\">Video playback requires cookie consent<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"\">ABOUT THE AUTHOR\/S<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Shili Xiong<\/strong><br \/>\nUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:sxiong9@illinois.edu\">sxiong9@illinois.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Brittany Duff<\/strong><br \/>\nUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:bduff@illinois.edu\">bduff@illinois.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<p><small><em>New Future of Work 2020, August 3\u20135, 2020<\/em><br \/>\n\u00a9 2020 Copyright held by the owner\/author(s).<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ABSTRACT The rapid shift to remote working environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing people to work in a mediated workspace that causes (in)attention and productivity issues. Previous attention research mainly revealed that divided attention and simultaneously conducting multiple tasks are cognitively harmful to task performance. In this paper however, we use a media [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":null,"msr_publishername":"","msr_publisher_other":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_edition":"","msr_editors":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_issue":"","msr_journal":"","msr_number":"","msr_organization":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_page_range_start":"","msr_page_range_end":"","msr_series":"","msr_volume":"","msr_copyright":"","msr_conference_name":"","msr_doi":"","msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_mag_id":"","msr_pubmed_id":"","msr_other_authors":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_award":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_institution":"","msr_host":"","msr_version":"","msr_duration":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_s2_match_type":"","msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_published_date":"2020-8-3","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_notes":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_conference_url":"","msr_journal_url":"","msr_s2_pdf_url":"","msr_year":0,"msr_citation_count":0,"msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_s2_match_confidence":0,"msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":false,"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_pub_ids":[],"msr_hide_image_in_river":0,"footnotes":""},"msr-research-highlight":[],"research-area":[13554,13559],"msr-publication-type":[193726],"msr-publisher":[],"msr-focus-area":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-field-of-study":[],"msr-conference":[],"msr-journal":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-676866","msr-research-item","type-msr-research-item","status-publish","hentry","msr-research-area-human-computer-interaction","msr-research-area-social-sciences","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_publishername":"","msr_edition":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_published_date":"2020-8-3","msr_host":"","msr_duration":"","msr_version":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_journal":"","msr_volume":"","msr_number":"","msr_editors":"","msr_series":"","msr_issue":"","msr_organization":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_notes":"","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":0,"msr_main_download":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_doi":"","msr_publication_uploader":[{"type":"file","viewUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/NFW-Xiong-Duff.pdf","id":"679182","title":"nfw-xiong-duff","label_id":"243109","label":0}],"msr_related_uploader":"","msr_citation_count":0,"msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_pdf_url":null,"msr_attachments":[{"id":679182,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/NFW-Xiong-Duff.pdf"},{"id":676869,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/NFW-66-Xiong-Duff.pdf"}],"msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"text","value":"Shili Xiong","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"text","value":"Brittany Duff","user_id":0,"rest_url":false}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[],"msr_event":[654018],"msr_group":[],"msr_project":[918261],"publication":[],"video":[],"msr-tool":[],"msr_publication_type":"unpublished","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":918261,"post_title":"Work &amp; well-being","post_name":"work-well-being","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2023-10-25 20:54:47","post_modified":"2023-10-25 20:54:50","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/work-well-being\/","post_excerpt":"The COVID-19 pandemic changed the lives of people around the world at home and at work, with effects lasting beyond the lockdowns. 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