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Computer-linked status signals can reduce avoidable office interruptions by making it clear when a colleague prefers not to be disturbed. They work best as a team-agreed cue—not a guarantee of availability or a measure of productivity—and should leave a clear route for genuinely urgent matters.
How computer status signals reduce interruptions
A status signal carries a person’s preferred interruptibility into the spaces where colleagues make decisions about approaching them. A messaging status may be easy to miss across a room; a visible desk light can make the same cue legible nearby.
FlowLight, a workplace research system, paired a physical traffic-light-like LED with computer-derived status and messaging presence. Its design used green for available, red for busy, pulsating red for do not disturb, and yellow for away. These colors describe that implementation, not a universal standard. A team should define its own meanings plainly and account for accessibility and local conventions.
The FlowLight authors reported a 46% reduction in interruptions in a field study involving 449 participants across 12 countries. In a separate, filtered analysis of self-reported logs from 36 participants, average interruptions fell from 4.1 to 2.2 per participant per day after one week of use, a 49% reduction. These are distinct results: the smaller log subset should not be treated as the basis for the overall figure, and neither result guarantees that another office or device will achieve the same effect.
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Survey responses offer a different measure: 55% of 182 respondents agreed to some degree that they were interrupted less than usual, and 59.3% agreed they had fewer interruptions at inopportune moments. These are participants’ reported experiences, not objective measures of productivity. The study also notes incomplete data across measures and possible inaccuracies in self-reported logs. Read the FlowLight study.
How to set up a status system your team will use
Agree on meanings and expectations
Before adding a light or changing software settings, agree on what each state means, how long it lasts, and what colleagues should do when they see it. For example, “busy” might mean “please wait for a convenient opening,” while “do not disturb” might mean “interrupt only for an urgent issue.” State how people can override or clear a status, and avoid making anyone prove that they are working in order to use it.
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Choose a signal people can see and correct
Consider whether the cue will be visible where interruptions happen, whether it can be set manually or inferred from computer activity, and how easily a person can correct a mistaken status. Also check installation requirements, accessibility, privacy and data retention, connections to messaging or calendar tools, and whether colleagues will respect the cue. A desk light may help nearby coworkers; a messaging presence can help people coordinating remotely. A combined approach can cover both settings.
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Keyboard and mouse activity cannot reliably tell whether someone is concentrating. A person may be thinking, reading, or talking through a problem without interacting with the computer. FlowLight’s researchers report that frequent status inaccuracies can reduce trust and lead people to abandon the system. If a signal is generated automatically, explain what activity it uses and provide a simple manual correction or override.
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Keep an urgent route open
A busy status is a request to defer routine interruptions, not a barrier to necessary coordination. FlowLight participants still interrupted colleagues when they had an important concern, even when a light indicated busy or do not disturb. Agree on an urgent channel or a clear exception so a signal does not prevent time-sensitive communication.
Should you turn off notifications to avoid distraction?
Not necessarily. Notifications can interrupt focused work, but they can also provide passive awareness without requiring someone to check a tool. In a two-week workplace field study, Iqbal and Horvitz found that some participants checked email more often after notifications were suppressed, while others appeared to focus better. The study dates to 2010, so it is evidence of a tradeoff rather than a current estimate of how every workplace behaves. Read the notification study.
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Instead of disabling every alert, distinguish urgent from nonurgent communication. Set expectations for response times, choose which notifications merit immediate attention, and test changes with the people affected. This keeps awareness available without implying that every message requires an instant reply.
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Keep work location separate from focus status
A workplace check-in or location indicator answers where someone is working; it does not reliably indicate whether they can be interrupted. Microsoft Teams workplace check-in can use configured corporate Wi-Fi or a desk peripheral, such as a monitor, to update a work-location signal. Microsoft says the feature is off by default and requires administrator configuration. Users must grant operating-system location permission, can control whether location is shared, and can manually set or clear the location.
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Microsoft says the feature is intended to facilitate collaboration, not attendance monitoring, and that administrators do not receive historical location data through it. These controls and stated purpose concern location sharing; they should not be mistaken for a focus signal. See Microsoft’s workplace check-in documentation.
What to measure after introducing a signal
Try the agreed cue with the team and ask whether routine interruptions are easier to defer, whether people can correct inaccurate states, and whether urgent communication still gets through. Look for signs that the signal is confusing or ignored, and revise the definitions or setup with the people using it. A light or status setting can support a shared norm, but it cannot replace one.
Heavy message volume is one reason teams may consider clearer boundaries, but published figures need careful interpretation. Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index reported 275 pings per day—described as one every two minutes during core work hours—for the top 20% of users by received ping volume. The figure came from aggregated, anonymized Microsoft 365 productivity signals ending February 15, 2025; it excludes education and EU tenants and is based on a 24-hour day. It is not an average for all workers. Read Microsoft’s Work Trend Index report.
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