I’ve heard people say before that one major way they eliminated stress was to limit the number of times they checked their email per day. I heard it, but I didn’t listen. I thought “no way could that work for me.”

I am an email-a-holic

I didn’t realize how much email had control of my life until one of my peers who had been on vacation (also an email addict) urged me to only check my email twice per day at regular intervals. Could I do such a thing?

He realized that after his vacation from email, he had experienced a notable decrease in his stress level. But what surprised him was that when he received the recap of emails and found that his list of action items was surprisingly short despite the hundreds of emails he received that week.

I figured I’d try it, but then he threw in another monkey wrench. He said that he had been reading a book called the 4 Hour-Workweek by Timothy Ferriss who suggests you do not check your email first thing in the morning! Now that would be a struggle.

After talking with him, I sat down at my computer, put my mouse pointer over the red “x” in the corner of Outlook and, after several seconds of internal debate, reluctantly clicked the button to close my email.

Having it closed that first day made me more stressed than having it open. But when I reopened my email a few hours later, I realized that there was nothing in there that had to be replied to immediately – however, I would have stopped what I was doing and replied immediately had I seen the email.

On the second day, I still opened my email first thing in the morning, but it was easier to close it afterward. By that afternoon, I felt a huge rush of relief. Email had been ruling my life and that was placing and incredible burden upon me. By opening and replying to email just twice per day, everyone was still satisfied, yet I got more work done, stayed more focused, and felt measurably less stressed.

So if you’re an email-a-holic like me (I’m still in recovery) try closing your email program. Go ahead – try it now! Then try this process for a week and see if it doesn’t drastically change your life. I know it’s difficult, but so worth it.

Here’s to you!

Tags: Stress //