Not only does checking your email for a limited number of times throughout the day reduce stress while completing important tasks, it reduces overall day-to-day stress levels.

Two groups of volunteers (both professionals and students) were assigned to either limited or unlimited checking of their emails each day for a week - then they swapped schedules.1 Stress levels during important daily tasks and at the end of each day were measured. ‘Limited email’ meant restricting their checking to three times a day while keeping their mailbox closed for the rest of the time: meanwhile ‘unlimited email’, as the phrase suggests, allowed checking of email ad lib, keeping their mailbox open and using any notification systems. Within this group, participants checked their emails a comparable number of times per day (15) to their normal habits.

However, the interesting group were those who were going against their usual routine with only limited email checking: they reported lower stress levels during important daily tasks as well as overall day-to-day reduced levels of stress. These individuals also reported feeling less distracted, which might help to account for less . Intriguingly, there were no differences between groups in the number of emails received nor how frequently they were answered, indicating the stress effect was due merely to the frequency of checking, rather than the volume of email.

Research is yet to determine whether stress can also be reduced from limiting the checking of other forms of computer-mediated communication such as sites and text messages during important tasks or throughout the day. Emails, texts and social network notifications are thought to trigger releases, a neurotransmitter in the brain that is linked to pleasure. Dopamine is powerfully linked to the unpredictability of a reward. But if the unpredictability of receiving emails releases dopamine, which makes us feel happy, how does limiting email checking make us feel less ? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that when we are constantly 'switched on' we are not so much ‘happy’ as aroused, which can also tend to negative emotions, whilst less stress does not necessarily equate with a high level of excitement, but a form of better known as well-being.

References

1. Kushlev, K., & Dunn, E.W. (2015). Checking email less frequently reduces stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 43, 220-228. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.005