Is checking email bad for your health?
In the modern workplace, checking email has become a core responsibility for many jobs. Why is this? Email is thought to boost productivity due to its 24-7 availability and high accessibility, speed of communication, and extensive documentation history. However, new research suggests that checking email may actually be detrimental to your well-being.
In particular, researchers attached heart rate monitors to office workers while also monitoring what programs they were using. The researchers found that:
[note color=”#B6D6F0″]People who read email changed screens twice as often and were in a steady “high alert” state, with more constant heart rates. Those removed from email for five days experienced more natural, variable heart rates.
“We found that when you remove email from workers’ lives, they multitask less and experience less stress,” said UCI informatics professor Gloria Mark. [/note]
The researchers noted that the findings could be useful for boosting productivity via clustering messages, or other time management strategies—many of which are a core component of leadership development programs like The Leadership Advantage™ (TLA).
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