 |
| Scott snacks constantly at the buffet of technological distraction |
Many human
jobs are likely to be replaced in whole, or in part. The workplace of
the future will place greater demands on our ability to focus, solve complex problems, think critically and generate creative insights.
But does the average day
of a knowledge worker facilitate this?
Scott works
as a middle manager for a large firm. His weekdays follow a similar routine.
06:30am He
gets out of bed at 6:30am. Like 79% of smartphone owners, Scott looked at his device
within 15 minutes of waking. He then spends 30 minutes on "household
activities" and is among the 42% of people who admit to using e-mail in the bathroom.
Scott
makes himself breakfast and spends a further 30 minutes scanning his phone and
checking e-mail while sipping coffee. On average Scott, like most people,
spreads six hours of e-mail user over each day,
08:00am At 8am, Scott
gets in his car and commutes to work, but he is not among the 18% of workers who admit to checking their e-mail while driving.
09:00am-12:00pm The first
three hours of Scott’s working day are spent in meetings – the average time for
someone in middle management. He switches between checking his smartphone and
replying to e-mails, while pretending to write notes on his laptop (92% of workers admit to multi-tasking during meetings). Scott
goes for a short walk at lunch. He is disciplined and doesn’t check his
smartphone during this time.´
12:30pm-05:30pm Scott’s
afternoon is spent interweaving tasks, mainly phone calls, e-mails, instant
messages and social media (Scott is among the 40% of workers who admit to using the internet and social media during the workday).
Mixed into this digital concoction are the other
distractions of the open office: gossip, snack breaks and noisy co-workers.
05:30pm-10:00pm Scott leaves
the office at 5:30pm and drives home. He does a few jobs around the house, has
an evening meal then enjoys three hours of leisure time. As 70% of people do, he checks his e-mail while watching TV, spending most of his
"down-time" switching constantly between screens: the TV, smartphone and tablet computer.
After
checking his phone for the final time (he has already checked it 149 times today), he tries to fall asleep, but the blue light
from his late-night screen time has suppressed his melatonin production by 22%), so it takes him longer than it should. He finally
falls asleep, exhausted.
Can you relate to this?
What are the consequences of this way of working?
Measuring
cognitive work - Consider
Scott’s day and answer the questions below.
1) Time
pressure: How
much of the available time was he focused on an activity?
2)
Switches: How
often did he switch from one process to the other?
3)
Complexity: How
complex, or routine, were the tasks that Scott was engaged in?
Cognitive
gears - We can use
these three questions to give us a sense of the overall cognitive load for a
given time-period. You can think about this cumulative load in the context of
three ranges, which represent three ‘cognitive gears.’
We can use
these three gears as a quick and simple way to plan and reflect on the
allocation of cognitive resources, and distributing cognitive work through the
day.
Scott spent the majority of his day stuck in
cognitive middle-gear, in a state of constant partial attention. Very little
time was spent in low gear, and a fraction was invested in focused and intense
high gear.
Polarised
work - In contrast,
if our attention is applied optimally, it helps us focus on what’s most
important and ignore what’s not. Many of us could benefit from creating more
distinct periods of focused attention, followed by effective rest and time for
reflection. This "polarised" approach "rescues" time,
thanks to reduced task-switching, reduces stress and facilitates better
progress on tasks with strategic and long-term significance. In addition, we
can enjoy more creative down-time, and better recovery.Edited from World Economic Forum
