If you are feeling overloaded with email, check out these statistics:
A new study in the UK shows that more than a third of workers are suffering from "email stress" as they are swamped with messages. Researchers from Glasgow and Paisley universities found that workers are struggling to cope with a deluge of emails, and it's leaving staff tired, frustrated and unproductive.
- 34 per cent said they checked their inbox every 15 minutes
- 64 per cent said they looked more than once an hour
But monitoring software revealed that they looked more often, with some workers viewing their emails up to 40 times an hour.
- 34 per cent said they felt stressed by the volume of emails and the need to reply quickly.
- 28 per cent said they felt "driven" when they checked their messages because of the pressure to respond.
- Only 38 per cent of workers were relaxed enough to wait a day or longer before replying.
- Women workers feel under greater pressure to respond than men.
The researchers concluded: "Email is the thing that now causes us the most problems in our working lives."
Email has become insidious in our lives, causing stress and usurping our time. With popular books such as "The Four-Hour Workweek" shaking up the way we think about work (Tim only checks email once per week), it's only natural to try to think of ways to cut down the time spent on email.
In the Stephen Covey quadrant ("First Things First"), email is the ultimate "urgent, but unimportant task". It *seems* urgent, but most of the time it only takes time and attention away from more important tasks.
Managing email is no simple task in itself. Sometimes, you may have to overcome cultural norms. For instance, do you think you *have to* respond to every email?
The answer may lie in managing ourselves more than our email. Are you willing to hire someone to help you? Can you check less often, and limit the time you spend on it? If you can, chances are, your life will get an immediate upgrade.
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