Doing and Feeling: Relationships Between Moods, Productivity and Task-Switching

Digital technology influences behaviours, moods and wellbeing. The relationships are complex, but users are increasingly interested in finding how to balance a digital life with psychological wellbeing. We present an approach for investigating the relationship between lifestyle aspects and digital technology usage patterns that combines MindGauge, a mobile app enabling users collect and analyse their moods and behaviours, with a productivity tool (RescueTime). We then report a 16-month study in which we collected computer and smartphone usage and self-reports from 72 participants. We present methods for analysing the relationship between productivity, task-switching, mood and lifestyle, and more specifically how digital technology usage associates with productivity and task-switching. Our study also investigates how lifestyle aspects (sleep quality, physical activity, workload, social interaction and alcoholic drink consumption) relate to mood, task-switching and productivity. Results show that more frequent task-switching is associated with negative moods. A few lifestyle aspects, such as sleep quality and physical activity, had a significant relationship with positive moods. We also contribute a mood detection model that utilise both digital footprints and lifestyle contexts, yielding an accuracy of 87 percent. The study provides evidence that such methods can be used to understand the impact of technology on wellbeing.