A new paperreleased by Microsoft puts numbers to the problem.
“Scheduling Focus Time through Cortana is another available option in Outlook.”
Whats a Remote Worker to Do?
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However, the researchers argue a more complex point.
Not all multitasking is negative, and tools can be used to guide remote workers towards positive results.
Participants detailed the benefits of positive multitasking in an anonymous diary.
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“Ive been less frustrated by meetings that werent very useful to me,” said one.
Others said they appreciate the choice to pay close attention when required, then focus elsewhere when its not.
Participants said multitasking helped them find information, like related files or email exchanges, relevant to a meeting.
… a groan-inducing 80-minute marathon is over six times more likely to encourage multitasking.
The paper favors any tool that pushes aside outside demands on workers attention while in a meeting.
New, better features in remote work platforms could go even further to encourage positive multitasking.
This would encourage positive multitasking while eliminating distractions found in other programs.
This could combat the arch enemy of every attention span: long, boring meetings.
But that changed with duration.
Meeting sizeas in, the number of people attendingwas also crucial.
One-on-one meetings encouraged the least multitasking, and a third person hardly changed the result.
But dipping into other tasks became likely as more faces appeared in a video call.
Multitasking was over twice as likely in a meeting with 10 or more people.
One participant detailed a relatable motivation.
“The rest of the time, I seem to not focus on work at all.”
The data included another weaker but more surprising result: scheduled meetings are bad news.
A scheduled meeting was around one and half times more likely to encourage multitasking than an ad-hoc meeting.
Of scheduled meetings, recurring meetings were the most fertile grounds for distraction.
