Why Have Workdays Started Feeling Longer Even When Hours Stay the Same?
The digital age has transformed the workday into a series of constant interruptions and immediate responses, leading to perceived longer and more exhausting days. Without natural breaks, work becomes a continuous flow, compressing attention and c...
We have started to encounter longer and more exhausting days recently. This change is not necessarily in terms of hours, but in how those hours are being used. The digital age has created a workday that has more unpredictable blocks of time that are constantly interrupted. We constantly switch between tasks every few minutes on average, according to a study published by Microsoft Work Trend Index (2022). The workday is as long as it has always been, but it is longer because it lacks clear boundaries. We can count movement from one meeting to another and commutes as natural breaks in a physical office, but what about when we look at digital environments?
The breaks are shortened or completely eliminated altogether, which increases fatigue that is perceived even when the work duration has not been increased, according to research published in Nature Human Behavior (2021). The removal of these breaks means that work is now continuous rather than discrete, and has no clear breaks between activities, which makes it difficult to clear one's mind. Relatively new communication tools have introduced a pattern of work in which messages are constantly received, which requires the individual to respond immediately. This ensures that there constant engagement with the organisation, even when working on individual activities. A concept of “time pressure perception” is created due to constant connectivity, as individuals feel they have less time available, even when work hours remain constant (Journal of Applied Psychology). The workday is now psychologically rich, with small demands that collect over time.
Image Credit: Gemini
The way that the organization of contemporary work life compresses our attention and multiplies interactions within a very short time frame is rather evident. The clock continues to run as before, but the way time is lived changes. Work is no longer segmented into discrete units; it extends as a continuum of activity in which completion is less visible, and boundaries are less clear. The day appears longer than before, even if it isn’t.
