I know I’m not the only one indundated with emails. But I’m also someone who is always anticipating some communication that I absolutely must read/respond to immediately.
The writer of the article that I found in its original source notes the following:
“When I was a child, I loved running to the door whenever I heard the mail carrier arrived. I would stand there waiting to grab the envelopes before they were stuffed into the mailbox. I didn’t want to waste a minute.
I couldn’t wait to see if there was anything exciting or unexpected for me. Most days, admittedly, there weren’t. But, occasionally a birthday invitation or a letter from my grandma would surprise me and make my day.
Monday through Saturday, once a day, I delighted in the potential that delivery might bring.
That rush and thrill of the unknown are now experienced innumerable times each day. All I have to do is look at my inbox. Whether at my computer, my tablet, or my phone, anywhere, anytime, “You’ve got mail” can light up the pleasure zone in my brain.”
The writer adds, however, that this kind of trigger leads to an addictive habit — checking email regularly throughout the day. And she suggests, as we probably all already know, that this habit is non-productive, and a stress-inducing pattern.
The trick is how to control the impulse and break, or at least lessen, the habit.
The article points to research shows that the pleasure zone in the brain that lights up every time a gambler, alcoholic or shopaholic reaches for their fix is the same one in our brains when we check our emails. And, the more we do so, the more we have to do so, to receive that same pleasurable sensation.
The writer admits that business professionals might argue that constantly checking emails is a problem. Their argument is that it’s convenient to have access to emails wherever and whenever we want. And it’s great to be instantly able to respond to customers, or get caught up on the latest industry news.
The article says it can only report what the research is finding and what the writer personally experienced when email became an addictive habit.
She proposes that when the first thing we do each day is read our emails, perhaps even before getting out of bed, we inadvertently hand over our day’s agenda. Most emails are requesting something from us: a response to an inquiry, a decision to do something or take action, or to read the important news we think is urgent for us to know.
What happens is that rather than attending to what is most important to us and our business, we find ourselves going down the path of responding, reading or looking at info that’s relevant to someone else.
Although surveys and studies indicate the average adult checks their emails approximately 15 times a day, for many, it could be way more.
The Relevancy Group is a market research company which measures consumer and executive behaviors. They found 66% of online consumers check their email account multiple times per day, with 13% of online consumers checking their email hourly or more frequently.
The article says that since we are diving into our inbox all day, every day; we often feel like we are drowning in email.
With all these emails staring at us, our brains receive the subtle message that we have so much to do. Others are waiting for a response from us. It’s stressful! And time-consuming!
According to the article, when we respond immediately to email, we find we’ve turned our attention away from whatever else we were working on, or intended to work on. If we don’t respond, the emails continue to pile up, causing us to feel out of control.
Sometimes, we check email hoping it will direct us towards what to do with our day, rather than proactively deciding what’s the most important task we should be working on. We also use email to procrastinate.
Email is such a great excuse. We tell ourselves we’ll just clean up the inbox first, and then get down to work. Before we know it, hours have gone by.
The research shows that the more we give into this addictive email habit, the more our stress levels increase. One study out of the University of British Columbia proved the opposite — less frequent email checks made people much happier throughout the day.
So, if we could break the habit of constantly checking our emails throughout the day, we’d reduce our stress, be more productive, and be happier!
The writer suggests that instead of responding to emails one by one as they roll in, set aside certain times of the day (perhaps morning, afternoon and night) to tend to messages.
Doing so, she says, will help us feel more in control of the flow, and we won’t be switching back and forth between different tasks all day. And if we really want to break the addiction, we need to learn some very specific strategies to deal effectively with this problem.
1. Decide on an email schedule that makes sense for our business and our lifestyle. Unless we are in customer service or another business in which responding to emails instantly is our job, almost everyone can reduce the frequency of diving into the inbox.
2. Shut down our email program and all notifications about mail, and only have it open during the allotted times.
3. Resist opening our email first thing in the morning. Exercise, eat a healthy breakfast, plan out the day ahead, and work on the most important project for that day for at least an hour.
4. Develop a system to manage emails and keep our inbox relatively free. Train ourselves to handle each email only once. Take care of it, delete it, delegate it, or file.
5. Unsubscribe to all emails that we never get around to reading or we know cause us to waste time. If unsubscribing makes us uncomfortable, remind ourselves that we can always resubscribe if we find ourselves missing them in the future.
6. Create a “read later” folder for the newsletters we enjoy and that bring value to our life. Move those emails immediately out of our inbox, and know when we will get to them. Clean that folder out at the end of each week. Take the time to either read or delete those we haven’t gotten to.
The article recognizes that asking us to check our email three or four times a day initially could cause us more stress! But the article promises that once we break this addictive habit and experience how much more relaxed and accomplished life feels, we’ll be really glad we did!
Am I ready for the challenge? I may have to email to let you know!
Courtesy Ellen G. Goldman, Huffington Post
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