The cost of interrupted work: more speed and stress

We performed an empirical study to investigate whether the context of interruptions makes a difference. We found that context does not make a difference but surprisingly, people completed interrupted tasks in less time with no difference in quality. Our data suggests that people compensate for interruptions by working faster, but this comes at a price: experiencing more stress, higher frustration, time pressure and effort. Individual differences exist in the management of interruptions: personality measures of openness to experience and need for personal structure predict disruption costs of interruptions. We discuss implications for how system design can support interrupted work. Author Keywords Multi-tasking, interruptions, experiment, context ACM Classification Keywords H5. Information interfaces and presentation: H.5.2 User Interfaces: Theory and Methods

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith, Ulrich Klocke
• Keywords: CHI 2008, Context Acm Classification, Human Computer Interaction, Interrupted Tasks, Predict Disruption Costs