Most people live their busy lives in a constant state of stress. Some of us are even may be addicted to stress. Which is why we love a new study that suggests that checking our email less makes us less stressed out.
A small study of 124 adults from the University of British Columbia asked participants to check their emails as often as they’d like for one week, and then for the next week, they were limited to three times per day — which sounds like nothing, right? The results were pretty straightforward: People were less stressed when they checked their inboxes less often.
But researchers noted that participants found it challenging to stop themselves from checking for new messages. “This is what makes our obvious-in-hindsight findings so striking: People find it difficult to resist the temptation of checking email, and yet resisting this temptation reduces their stress,” Kostadin Kushlev, the study’s lead author and a Ph.D. candidate at University of British Columbia’s Department of Psychology, said in a media release.
One tactic he recommended to minimize stress whithout missing any important messages is to check your email in chunks. “I now check my email in chunks several times a day, rather than constantly responding to messages as they come in,” Kushlev said, “And I feel better and less stressed.”
So unless something is so timely it can’t wait another half hour, set aside a few times throughout the day to tackle your inbox — and perhaps make a plan on how to digitially declutter.
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