GitHub surveyed 40 software engineers to find out how work-related events affected performance, stress, and satisfaction over the course of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the course of two weeks, participants were asked to rate their day as “Awesome,” “Good,” “OK,” “Bad” or “Terrible,” and to describe their day in more detail using questions based on GitHub’s SPACE productivity framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The survey found that meetings and interruptions significantly impact how developers rate their days than researchers expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On days with very few or no interruptions, the chance of developers having a good day was 82%. This dropped to 7% when developers reported being interrupted for most of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When developers held an average of two meetings per day, there was a 74% probability that they reported good progress toward their goals, but only 14% for more than three meetings per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researchers attribute this to the reality that frequent meetings distracted developers from concentrated work and interrupted their working hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GitHub’s research also found that periods of reflection increase developer satisfaction, create less stress, and increase productivity, with many developers wanting to continue this practice after the two-week study is complete.<\/p>\n\n\n