Tuesday 5 January 2016

Stressed? Switch off Email Updates, says latest Study

You could rid yourself of some stress at the push of a button, quite literally, if the findings of a recent study are anything to go by. A team of researchers at an independent research organization found that stress levels were higher among people who opted for automatic email updates. The researchers found that ‘email pressure’ – a phenomenon associated with a constant stream of emails that could lead to anxiety and frustration – was higher among people who had chosen to keep push notifications for emails on.

For the purpose of this study, Future Work Center, a U.K.-based independent research organization, collected data from about 2,000 people belonging to different industry verticals. The idea behind conducting a study of this nature was to determine if factors such as behavior, technology, work-life balance, demographics, and personality type had a correlation to email pressure, and what were the coping mechanisms employed by people facing such stress.

Not so surprisingly, researchers found that people who kept the push notifications option on for their email accounts perceived a higher degree of email pressure. The other key finding of the study was that people who checked their email late in the night and earlier in the morning also faced higher stress levels.

Since people started using emails in the 1970s, communication across the world has become instant and seamless. But in an age where email volumes continue to rise, people often find themselves struggling to keep their list of email-related priorities straight.

The study also found that those in managerial positions faced a higher level of email stress as compared to people in non-managerial positions. Coping with email stress, the researchers recommend, can be easier if people switch off push notifications and launch the application only when needed.

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