Constant Email Checks Can Leave You Stressed

Looking for a way to help reduce your stress? Try checking your emails less often, researchers suggest.

The new study featured 124 adults -- including students, financial analysts, medical professionals and others -- who were divided into two groups. 

During the first week, one group checked their emails only three times a day, while the other group checked their emails as often as they liked. The groups then switched for the second week of the study.

The findings showed that people felt less stressed when they checked their email less often.

However, changing email habits proved difficult for many of the study participants, the investigators found.

Most participants in this study found it quite difficult to check their email only a few times a dayd.

This is what makes the 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.

Businesses and other organizations may help their workers reduce stress by suggesting they deal with their email in chunks instead of constantly checking and responding to messages.

The study was published online recently in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

Reference: 

University of British Columbia, news release, Dec. 3, 2014