How often do you check your email? Whether it’s business-related or personal, we all feel an obligation to check our emails and respond in a timely manner. On the other hand, our inbox can easily become saturated with an overflow of emails, silently pressuring us through the increasing “unread” volume. In these stressful moments, it is also important that we find ways to relieve stress that maintain our health and wellbeing.

How do emails impact our wellbeing and how can we create a healthy relationship with them?

email notifications

What is Email Fatigue?

Worldwide, roughly 306.4 billion emails are sent and received each day in 2020. Email traffic is projected to increase even more each year. Moreover, according to research by Edison Software, 74% of Americans feel overwhelmed by the emails they receive. In terms of email volume, 33% feel stressed when they receive too many emails.

Email Fatigue is a term in email marketing, and describes a state where we feel overwhelmed with handling emails. Most of us have likely tried to combat email fatigue and relieve stress in one way or another. For example, closely managing inboxes, or spending hours deleting unwanted messages.

The Effects of Email Engagement

The University of British Columbia published a 2014 study that tested the frequency of email-checking and its effects on wellbeing. For one week, 124 adult participants limited their email-checking to three times a day. Then, for the following week, they checked their emails for an unlimited number of times. When email usage was limited, participants felt less stress, tension, and were less distracted by incoming emails. With lower stress levels, their overall health and wellbeing also improved. Consequently, participants experienced positive outcomes such as higher mindfulness, increased self-perceived productivity, and better sleep quality.

According to a 2017 Jobvite survey, on average, 45% of Americans tend to check their email after work hours every day, many at the request of their employers. Many of us feel pressured to check our emails frequently for one reason or another. Another study found that monitoring work emails during non-work hours is detrimental to the health and wellbeing of not only employees, but their spouse and family members as well. Even when a person didn’t actually work, the expectation of availability over emails during non-work hours increased stress, which then leads to strain and conflict within family relationships.

University of California, Irvine found that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds for someone to regain focus after a distraction. In other words, constantly tending to emails throughout the day requires multi-tasking and scatters our focus. If we are always checking our emails, we’re not only decreasing focus time, we’re also spending additional time trying to regain that focus.

Frequent online checking and stress

Ways to Relieve Stress from Email Fatigue

Allocate a Daily Email Allowance

Each person is different in the way they need to prioritize the amount spent on emails. Consequently, each person requires different ways to relieve stress from email fatigue for their wellness.

One way to limit email engagement is by setting the times we allow ourselves to check emails throughout the day. For example, set yourself to only check and respond to emails 3 times per day: morning, afternoon, and evening. Setting specific times like 9:00 am, 12:00 pm, and 5:00 pm, can also be helpful.

Another way to set boundaries is by assessing how much time we really need each day for email and communication. How much time do you spend checking notifications while you’re at work, on the bus, or waiting in line? A lot of these small moments of checking can be gathered into a few time frames. Consequently, we can stay more present in what we’re doing. Once you’re done with a self-assessment, set a few brief checks (5-10 minutes max) per day where you can reply to urgent emails, but also allocate a specific amount of time in your day where you can really concentrate and deal with emails.

Try to keep the email tab closed and notifications on phones turned off otherwise for optimum stress relief!

Better Email Management

Managing emails can feel mentally overwhelming if there’s a lot to go through. Sometimes, it’s not about the time spent on emails, but a matter of how we manage our workflow dealing with emails. Try to use email managing tools, or set up a filtering system for your inbox in a way where you won’t feel overwhelmed when you check-in.

An easy way to feel less clutter is by unsubscribing. For example, spend some time going through newsletters subscriptions and social media email notification settings. Our engagement and attention are exactly what many businesses want, and they’re becoming smarter in reaching us. Therefore, cutting some of the unwanted solicitations will bring more peace to our inbox. This activity alone can be a cathartic way to relieve stress.

Take an Email Sabbatical for Your Wellness

take a mental vacation

We all need time off to disconnect and reset once in a while. For example, if constant emails are clearly affecting your health and wellbeing, an email sabbatical can be a great solution to relieve stress. Some people do this when they go on vacation. Communicate with your boss, co-workers, and collaborators in advance and finish all necessary important email communications before a sabbatical. There are ways to set emails to filter and forward to certain addresses or give automated responses so that people know when they’ll get a response. This may require some planning and understanding, but an email sabbatical can be a great way to rejuvenate!

Healthy Relationships with the Internet

Electronic communication has become so integrated into our lives, but the constant reach can tire us out. If you felt like limiting emails could help your mental health and wellbeing, this article on social media detox may also be helpful!

https://selfmind.ai/blog/why-and-how-you-should-try-social-media-detox-right-now/

If you’re looking for more tips on how to care for your mental health, check out some of our past blog posts!
→ Looking to improve your mental health? Try the SELFMIND app FREE for a week!

Image: Unsplash
Reference:

Becker, W. J., Belkin, L., & Tuskey, S. (2018). Killing me softly: Electronic communications monitoring and employee and spouse well-being. Academy of Management Proceedings2018(1), 12574. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2018.121
In-text citation


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Jobvite. (2017). 2017 Job Seeker Nation Study. https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017_Job_Seeker_Nation_Survey.pdf


Kushlev, K., & Dunn, E. W. (2015). Checking email less frequently reduces stress. Computers in Human Behavior43, 220–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.005


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Mark, G., Gudith, D., & Klocke, U. (2008). The cost of interrupted work. Proceeding of the Twenty-Sixth Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – CHI ’08, 107–110. https://doi.org/10.1145/1357054.1357072


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