Harnessing the Potential of Workday Design: The Sequencing of Task Difficulty and Its Implications for Workday Well‐Being and Performance

ABSTRACT Can workers improve their workday well‐being and performance through the temporal organization of tasks, without altering the content and characteristics of tasks during the day? We integrate insights from cognitive energetics theory with the lens of temporal comparison to theorize the workday sequencing of task difficulty, and we uncover its implications for workday well‐being and performance outcomes. We conducted two field studies in two organizations: Study 1 was a field experiment with an intervention on 166 employees’ workdays; Study 2 was an experience sampling study with 226 employees, integrating multiple daily surveys, supervisor ratings, and electroencephalogram (EEG) assessments. Results show that when workers addressed more difficult tasks early on and moved to easier ones later as the day unfolded, they experienced less fatigue and greater mental relaxation at the end of the workday; they also exhibited better extra‐role performance on the day. Additionally, the effectiveness of this difficult‐tasks‐first approach varied with individual differences: although it enhanced perceived work progress on a day for early‐pacers, this benefit was less pronounced for individuals with a steady or late pacing style. Overall, our research highlights the temporal sequencing of tasks as a valuable perspective for work and workday design.