Chapter 10: Mind Wandering at Work: When Employees’ Thoughts Drift Away

Despite its impact on numerous outcomes, surprisingly little research has been conducted in organizational contexts on mind-wandering, a common state in which one’s thoughts drift away from a task toward self-generated thoughts. We review the mind-wandering literature in an attempt to raise employees’ and managers’ awareness of the prevalence of this phenomenon and allow for more productive responses to mind wandering. We introduce methods for measuring mind wandering and explain how mind wandering can be regarded as a recovery mechanism. We further suggest that transformational leadership may favorably affect mind wandering levels. We also highlight important implications such as encouraging managers to nonjudgmentally check employees’ attention and repeat important messages. Such an approach may create an environment where employees can openly admit their lack of attention when it occurs. We also attempt to raise managers’ awareness and improve knowledge of how mind wandering affects work-related outcomes, and specifically productivity and creativity. This may encourage organizations to design work environments that consider mind wandering as a natural phenomenon.