Breaking boredom: Interrupting the residual effect of state boredom on future productivity.

Boredom is an emotion that constantly fluctuates in employees of all ages and occupations. Here, we draw on functional theories of boredom and theories of emotion regulation to develop an episodic model of how boredom shapes employee attention and productivity over time. We argue that employees often suppress boredom at work to "power through" boring tasks and objectives, resulting in residual bouts of mind-wandering-and thus productivity deficits-during future performance episodes.

More tasks, more ideas: The positive spillover effects of multitasking on subsequent creativity.

We propose that multitasking behavior influences creativity on subsequent tasks and that it does so through a serially mediated process in which multitasking increases activation, which increases cognitive flexibility, resulting in a positive effect on downstream creativity. We build support for our hypotheses through 4 studies designed to establish both internal and external validity: an archival study using coded data from the TV show, and a laboratory experiment test the direct link between multitasking and subsequent creativity; while a quasi-experimental field study with restaurant servers and a second laboratory experiment examine the full serial mediation model. Results from the archival study and the first lab experiment support the proposed theory of a positive relationship between multitasking and subsequent creativity.