Email stress , or the stress generated by constantly checking it (properly) can cause high levels of mental instability.
Beware of email stress
According to research from the University of British Columbia , it is recommended that you space out the number of times you check your email inbox.
This was identified through the comparison and behavioral analysis of two different groups.
One group in the study included 124 adults , including students and professionals. Of this group, one group was limited to checking their incoming email (i.e., their inbox) to a maximum of three times a day; the other small business email list was asked to check their email as many times a day as possible.
After one week, the groups exchanged roles . After the second week, the participants attended daily to share data on subjective information about the perception of stress suffered.
“People consistently experience less email stress when they check their incoming email less often,” said Kostadin Kushlev, lead author of the study and a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia.
Conclusions
This analysis concludes that most respondents found it difficult, if not impossible, to reduce their inbox checks to three times a day. In general, users find it very difficult to resist checking their inbox.
Kushlev was inspired to do this study by his own experience with email overload: “ I now check my inbox in batches a couple of times a day, rather than answering messages at the same rate they come in, and that has greatly reduced my own stress and the strain of sitting in front of the computer .”
Email stress is a worrying issue in itself, and companies themselves could start by reducing employee stress by establishing policies for employees to check their inbox in a few batches a day rather than constantly responding to every message.