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hen Jamie, 34, an IT
consultant, bought a new
W iPhone, he dutifully linked
it to his work email for
‘emergencies’, but within days he found he
was joining the 62 per cent of British men
who now send work emails out of hours.
“I woefully underestimated how much
discipline it would take for me not to check
all the time right up until I went to sleep,”
he admits. “Not only did this annoy the
hell out of my girlfriend, but it also meant
that I never switched off from work.”
And he’s not alone. According to a study
by The Radicati Group, employees on
average receive 160 emails a day, which
they spend a huge 28 per cent of the day
dealing with (around 2.1 hours per day).
Over one-quarter of men in the UK already
work more than 45 hours a week as
standard, with nearly 40 per cent adding
a whopping two hours on to their already
long day dealing with emails. And when
you bear in mind there are millions of
iPhone, BlackBerry and other smartphone
users in the UK, it’s no wonder email
is invading our private lives.
But what if you knew that those
innocent emails you were sending were
actually affecting your mental state?
Or putting you front of the line for a heart
attack? Overuse of email can cause
extreme health problems. In fact, our
much-cherished 24/7 culture is essentially
hitting us in the face. Very painfully.
THE EMAIL INVASION
“We’re living through an information
overload,” says chartered psychologist and
stress expert Dr David Lewis. “Our studies
show that this excess and inescapability of
emails is a major contributing factor to
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warning!
stress.” And while stress has become
a buzzword for this decade, it must
be taken seriously. Our bodies are not
designed to cope with consistent stress,
as such it’s now being blamed for triggering
85 per cent of chronic illnesses. According
to the Health & Safety Executive,
work-related stress can manifest itself
in a diminished appetite and lack of libido,
headaches, skin problems, difficulties
with digestion, increased blood pressure
and heart disease.
The effects of stress go further
than physical. “It can lead to feelings of
depression, anxiety and even mental
breakdown,” explains Dr Lewis. “Increased
emailing can also lead to alienation and
disenchantment. One of the first techniques
a government will use if they want to
persecute someone is to dehumanise
them, which is just what email does to us.”
STEMMING THE TIDE
So what’s the solution? We’re not advising
you rip out your wireless router, but there
are a few simple ways to stop emails
taking over your life, leaving you free to
make the most of your working day. Or,
you know, spend an evening with your lady
that doesn’t involve a virtual discussion
about next week’s board meeting.
Professor Cary
Cooper, from
Lancaster University’s
management school,
has a strict set of
rules to ensure you
control your emails,
not vice versa. “Only
check your emails
every hour at the
most,” he advises
— ideally in the morning, before lunch and
twice in the afternoon. There’s also an
argument for developing a priority system.
“After deleting all my spam in the morning,
what I do is print the emails that look
important, then sort them into piles of
things that need to be dealt with that day,
in the next 24 hours, and the next week,”
explains Cooper. “With people you email
regularly, it’s worth asking them to rate
their emails by urgency, and if you return
the favour, you’ll create more effective
working systems.” And there’s nothing
traditional talking can’t solve. “If you’re
being copied in unnecessarily, just tell the
originator to stop — it helps enormously.”
For many of us, there are simply too
many emails to answer in a day, but don’t
let panic take hold: “There is no way to
answer every email, and it is important to
understand this and not feel guilty,” warns
Cooper. “Prioritise the important emails, do
some of the others later and forget about
the ones that could drown you and are not
relevant to your job.
Remember, if
it’s really important,
they’ll write back.”
Then, of course, the
delete button is
there for a reason,
says Cooper —
when a situation has
been dealt with,
simply bin or file.
sort your inbox
IS Your EmaIl KIllIng You?
Attach files B I U
It began without us even noticing, but checking email is now
taking over many people’s lives. ShortList’s Helen Bownass
discovers that the constant logging on is not good for your health
“Brian, who did you say
taught you to touch type?”
Mike Song, CEO of Getcontrol.net,
which has trained some of the world’s
biggest companies on email efficiency,
has some quick solutions. “The easiest
thing you can do is filter out low-priority
messages,” he says. “Most email providers
have a router so that you send all emails
from certain addresses into a separate
folder. Pick ones that won’t need instant
action, but still distract you, then you
can check it every few weeks and filter
out any vital ones. You’ll probably delete
99 per cent.”
Song also recommends removing
temptation: “Disconnect the ‘you’ve got
mail’ ping and pop-ups and change the
“Increased emailing can lead to
feelings of depression, anxiety…
even alienation and detachment”
email refresh button to every 30 minutes
instead of every minute. Inform your
colleagues so they know to call or talk
to you face to face if they need an
immediate answer.”
And if you’ve done all that but still feel
like you have to log on? “If you’re emailing
in the evening, then sort your emails
by sender, pick the five most important
people to reply to, do it, then stop,” he
advises. “If you’re going away, tell people
you’ll be online a certain time every day, for
20 minutes, and you’ll deal with anything
vital then. Then stick to it.” You owe
it to yourself and your body.
Coping With Work Stress by PJ Dewe,
MP O’Driscoll & CL Cooper is out in
September, published by Wiley-Blackwell
www.ShortLiSt.com / 43
PHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY IMAGES
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