The world is abuzz with discussions about how email overload curbs work productivity. But let’s get personal for a minute.
Do you realize all that time you spend answering and organizing email is taking a toll on your health and happiness? ( « Click to Tweet )
It’s true. Employing an email organizer to help tame your inbox not only improves your work performance, but it makes your life better in other areas, too. When you minimize the tedious and generally unimpactful practice of living in email, you’ll notice striking improvements in your life. Here are four powerful upsides to saying no to email overload:
1. You’ll Like Your Job More
Being able to count on predictable time away from work improves job satisfaction. When email blurs the line between home and work, our happiness at both suffers.
When one group of consultants committed to reducing their after-hours workload, abstaining from email and working 11 percent less overall, their job satisfaction rate jumped from 49 percent to 72 percent. Incidentally, their productivity didn’t suffer.
2. You’ll Be Better Rested
Employees who feel pressured to respond to emails after hours get less sleep than those who don’t. In one study, they were more likely to agree with statements such as, “I have no energy for going to work in the morning.” They also reported more health-related absences than their counterparts.
“When people don’t have this recovery time, it switches them into an exhaustion state, so they go to work the next day not being engaged,” researcher Larissa Barber told TIME magazine. If the problem persists over time, of course, then the fatigue and work absences will only compound and become more severe.
3. You’ll Be Sharper
For over a decade studies have shown that the distractions caused by continuously receiving emails can dock your IQ by as much as 10 points. The Institute of Psychiatry points out that this drop is equivalent to losing a night’s sleep—on top of the actual sleep you’ve already lost due to email—and is more than double the effects of smoking marijuana.
4. You’ll Improve Your Memory
Email interruptions throughout the day can disrupt your ability to remember tasks you need to perform in the future. Known as prospective memory failure, this condition plagues employees who switch tasks frequently. Simply enlisting the help of an automated email organizer frees up your brain power for remembering the important things, both in your personal and your professional life.
SaneBox is an easy-to-use inbox tool that will help you make your email manageable again by prioritizing important emails and summarizing the rest. Start today for free »
