Ich habe schon einmal hier darüber berichtet, jetzt bin ich in der aktuellen Ausgabe von First Monday wieder darauf gestossen. Allerdings geht es dabei nicht nur um das Unterbrochen werden, sondern auch um die Informationsflut:

Today’s rapid flow and exchange of information, and the consequent tasks they impose, are overwhelming for knowledge workers and their managers. The barrage of communication exacts a toll on their productivity, as well as on their personal well–being. The problem encompasses two distinct yet interlinked causative phenomena:

1. E–mail overload. A typical Intel knowledge worker receives 50–100 work–related e–mail messages each day [3]. The continual accumulation of messages is a major driver of employees’ work experience. This volume represents a sizable task load, starting with the need to read and dispose of messages and ending with execution of uninvited work generated by those messages. This e–mail barrage taxes employees’ resources and reduces time they can devote to their primary work. It also places them in a frustrating, unending rat race.
The problem isn’t the abundance of accessible information. It’s the queued streams of pushed information; that is, the accumulation of messages governed by the expectation that the worker process them all [4].

2. Distractions/interruptions. On average, knowledge workers can expect three minutes of uninterrupted work on any task [5] before being interrupted. Sources of interruption include e–mail, instant messages, phone calls, text messages, co–workers, and other distractions [6]. The majority of these distractions are attended to immediately.
The result is that people average 11 minutes on any one “working sphere” (project) before switching to another project altogether [7]. This extreme fragmentation of work results in a severe cumulative time loss, with some estimates as high as 25 percent of the work day [8]. In addition, the inability to concentrate on an intellectual activity requiring more than a few minutes has a debilitating effect on employees’ ability to achieve optimal results.

Die Auswirkungen dieser Fragmentierung des Arbeitsalltags in kleine Häppchen sind dabei dramatisch:

People are less capable of thinking, generating creative ideas, and effectively solving problems.

Oder zugespitzt ausgedrückt:

“In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought” – Michael Crichton
The creative thinking process requires long stretches of uninterrupted time, to study books, articles and online resources, and to process information, sorting it mentally and generating insight. These activities take time as well as mental concentration, which builds up slowly and can easily be lost.
Field research demonstrates that restoring daily segments of contiguous “Quiet Time” can have a major effect of increasing productivity in development teams [21], [22]. Additional research shows a correlation between a fragmented work mode and reduced creativity [23].
In the past, such thinking time was core to the work paradigm. Newton got hit by that apple because he was sitting under a tree. Sitting and contemplating the world (what we now call “doing nothing”) was an expected part of a scientist’s routine. More recently, say ten years ago, employees could still expect to do some thinking – if no other way, after 5 PM, during the weekend, or by hiding in a conference room.
Today, the only time we can think is when the flight attendant orders us to close our notebooks prior to landing. At any other time – 24×7 – we’re accessible to beeping, alerting, attention–grabbing devices and software tools. We are expected to respond to them instantly. One perspective is that technology channels our thinking to multiple, mostly trivial problems instead of focusing on a few important ones where we can create real value.

Quelle: Zeldes, N.; Sward, D.; Louchheim, S. (2007). Infomania: Why we can’t afford to ignore it any longer. First Monday, 12 (8). Verfügbar unter: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_8/zeldes/index.html [22.08.07].

Es wird Zeit, dass wir uns mal wieder Zeit nehmen, einfach „nur“ zum Nachdenken, zum Philosophieren, zum „um-die-Ecke-denken“. Und das ohne schlechtes Gewissen. Warum nicht einfach mal alle neuen Blogbeiträge ignorieren? Wenn etwas wichtiges dabei ist, wird man schon darauf aufmerksam. Wie wäre es, mal kein schlechtes Gewissen zu kriegen, wenn man eine Woche nichts gepostet hat, und sich statt dessen vorzunehmen, über den nächsten Beitrag ein wenig zu „hirnen“? Und im Büro: warum nicht einfach den E-Mail Account nur zu bestimmten Zeiten leeren? Ich habe angefangen, mein Maiprogramm nicht mehr offen zu lassen, sondern es zu schliessen, so dass ich nicht jede neue Mail direkt auf dem Bildschirm habe. Einfach mal die Bürotür schliessen und sich in aller Ruhe der nächsten Aufgabe widmen. Einfache Dinge, aber aus Erfahrung schwer umzusetzen.