Getting into a state of flow has taken on almost mythical status after Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s work uncovered the huge power it brings to those lucky enough to enter it. It’s perhaps no surprise, therefore, that research from Durham University shows that we’re much happier when we enter such a state.
The workers looked to understand how work could be designed in a way that encourages time to fly.
Designing work
“Work design is a big thing for the management field, but it’s mostly about making your job more interesting, giving higher autonomy, and things like that,” they explain. “But many jobs cannot be redesigned to be more interesting. What we can do is to engineer the time experience of those people.”
To figure out how people feel time passing at work and how it affects their jobs, the team did a couple of tests where people did repetitive tasks, like checking calculations. They also undertook a study of 53 machinists and 43 support workers in a Chinese garment factory, another study of 211 office workers and 34 supervisors, and a survey of 270 workers in different jobs online.
From all this, the researchers found two ways organizations can make time feel better at work:
Knowable Timing: This means employees know what’s going on and when, like when a meeting starts and ends. Without this, people notice time more, and it feels slow.
Breaking Work into Bits: This involves splitting up long work periods by switching between different tasks. When attention to the main task drops, people pay more attention to time, making it feel longer. Taking a break or switching tasks stops focus from drifting to just thinking about time passing.
Widespread use
These methods work well not only in creative jobs where you have a lot of freedom but also in repetitive jobs where you have less control. The authors suggest that managers should:
Avoid Making Workers Wait: According to the study, managers can, in some cases, get rid of unnecessary waiting times or at least make them less uncertain. For instance, in the garment factory with support workers, managers could give them other tasks to do while they’re waiting. This helps to make time more predictable. In an office, having clear start and end times for meetings and other planned tasks can prevent time from dragging on.
Encourage Task Switching: Managers can suggest that workers switch tasks when they start feeling bored or tired. This adds markers in the workday, giving employees a chance to do different things. When focus on the main task starts slipping, these markers help bring attention back. However, managers need to be careful with this, especially in complex jobs. If employees are deep into a complicated task, switching might be distracting. So, managers should think about tailoring task switching to different jobs or even different people.
“If you keep thinking about time, time is going to be slow. So, you need to move people’s attention away so that they are not thinking about time,” the researchers conclude. “If you can make it feel faster, that will improve well-being.”
