Why We Need a Vacation from E-mail

Like many office workers, I rely on e-mail to keep me in the loop professionally. But I no longer have my computer set to ping every time a new e-mail arrives, nor do I click on each message the moment it hits my in-box. The reason? My new policy protects my mental and physical health. The proof…

A recent small study involved office workers who routinely used e-mail in their jobs. For the duration of the study, participants were hooked up to portable heart-rate monitors while at work…and software installed on their computers kept track of how often they switched between windows. For three days, participants worked as usual, routinely checking, sending and receiving e-mails. Then they began a five-day blackout during which they had no e-mail access. Findings…

• On days when they had e-mail access, participants’ heart-rate patterns remained in a steady state of “high alert” indicative of mental stress…but during the e-mail time-out, their heart-rate variability returned to the more natural patterns associated with reduced stress.

• The average number of times participants shifted between computer windows dropped significantly—from 37 times per hour with e-mail to 18 times per hour without. This suggested that the e-mail blackout allowed participants to focus more intently on each individual task. One participant remarked, “I was able to spend time actually doing tasks that had to be done.”

• Without e-mail, participants engaged in more physical activity and face-to-face interaction—because they got up from their desks and walked over to colleagues’ workstations to have conversations. They also reported that they enjoyed their social lives at work with their colleagues more when e-mail was cut off.

• Only 15% of participants said that they missed e-mail. The rest felt that it was primarily a burden, with comments along the lines of, “With e-mail, it’s a train wreck…you can’t look away from it,” and “[E-mail] ruled my life…now I feel liberated.”

What this means for you: Your job may not allow for any weeklong e-mail vacations, but you can take control somewhat. How…

• Rather than keeping your e-mail open continuously, check it only at designated times—for instance, first thing in the morning, after lunch and again toward the end of the day. Dealing with e-mails in batches can be less time-consuming and disruptive than handling them one at a time.

• Let coworkers know that if they are sharing critical information or need an immediate response, they can phone or stop by your desk.

• At the very least, turn off the pings and pop-ups that signal the arrival of each new message. That way, instead of dealing with constant interruptions, you can check your e-mail in between tasks when it is most convenient for you—not when some mechanized alert tells you to.