Effects of individual differences in blocking workplace distractions
Mark, Czerwinski and Iqbal ran an exploratory field study in which a group of information workers used software to block online distractions for one week. With distractions blocked, participants rated their focus and productivity significantly higher. Those who benefited most reported being less in control of their work, which was associated with lower Conscientiousness and Lack of Perseverance. Unexpectedly, those reporting higher control of work experienced a cost of higher workload with distractions blocked.
Mark, Czerwinski and Iqbal ran an exploratory field study in which a group of information workers used software to block online distractions for one week. With distractions blocked, participants rated their focus and productivity significantly higher. Those who benefited most reported being less in control of their work, which was associated with lower Conscientiousness and Lack of Perseverance. Unexpectedly, those reporting higher control of work experienced a cost of higher workload with distractions blocked.
Written from the abstract as shown on the OpenAlex record, read 2026-11-04.
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Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3173574.3173666.