Email anxiety: learn how to calm down and manage your time better

We start a new working day. The starting ritual hardly varies from one day to the next. When we check our email, we are overwhelmed by the numerous emails cluttering our inbox. A sort of Groundhog Day where messages are always the uncomfortable protagonists.

This high volume of communications causes what is known as email anxiety. A stressful state that generally reduces the productivity of the professional who suffers from it. 

The little time we intend to devote to reading, as well as the pending work, result in a hasty and debatable sifting that often overlooks really important emails.

Mailbird Survey

Mailbird, a desktop email management application, conducted a survey on the excess of emails received by workers during the workday. 

According to their data, 40% of workers receive between 61 and 100 emails per day. However, only 10% of those that occupy your inbox are really relevant to the performance of your work. 

Such a large amount of mail generates email anxiety and makes it difficult to find valuable messages. The survey also showed that one third of the professionals consulted spend between 3 and 5 hours a week managing their inboxes. 39% needed more than 6 hours per week for this task. 

Frustration and wasted time are the consequences of this common email discomfort. Nowadays, thanks to the constant access to email on our smartphones, the drip of emails is endless.

71% percent of workers indicated that they could easily cope with stress if they went a few hours without checking their email. However, only 51% were not stressed if they spent the weekend ignoring these notifications.

Reduce your email anxiety with these two strategies 

• Delete work-related applications

This is undoubtedly a radical but very effective measure. We delete from our personal Smartphone and Tablet any type of material connected to work. 

It is also important that we let our managers and colleagues know. With this action we will considerably reduce the stress caused by constantly checking the inbox. 

Making our position clear makes it easier for others to understand and respect it. Outside of working hours, we do not have to be continually concerned with work issues. Free time is precious and we cannot waste it or vitiate its quality with email anxieties.

Once this rule has been established with our most direct work environment, it’s up to us to personally comply with it every day. No “I’m going to take a look”, “just for a moment”, “let’s see if they sent me something…”, etc. Avoiding such addictive behavior is often difficult at first, but then it becomes effortless as our quality of life improves.

• Correct inbox size management

There are cases in which the option to disconnect for a few hours from managers or work teams is non-negotiable. When this situation occurs, proper management of the size and entries of the inbox is essential. 

Among the most effective options to carry out this management we have:

1. Unsubscribe from newsletters that we never read. The aforementioned survey shows that 60% of workers who delete them improve their inbox management. It also reduces their email anxiety somewhat.
2. Set filters on emails according to their priority. In this way, those that are of no real importance are left out of our main inbox. We can group emails from certain senders in a section labeled as low priority. 
3. Find the sources of unwanted incoming emails and delete them. Those that come from marketing campaigns, social networks, spam, subscriptions, industry news… You just have to get to the source and delete it. 
4. Check email only twice a day. We know that checking them takes time, so we must manage it well. Instead of checking mail constantly, it is more effective to check mail twice a day.

Eleven o’clock in the morning and four o’clock in the afternoon are two very practical options. At that time there will be enough messages to review and it doesn’t slow down early morning tasks or clutter the inbox at the end of the day. In addition, if we delete the read and unimportant ones, we leave the tray clean for the following day. 

At Cloudworks we strongly believe in the concept of disconnecting from work. Professionals should relax and rest outside of their workday. For this reason we have spacious terraces and cozy cafeterias where coworkers enjoy part of their moments of relaxation.

They are also an ideal place for personal enrichment, as they promote social relations while enjoying magnificent views and savoring a good cup of coffee. Also, we are constantly promoting various community events and initiatives.Check out our various locations in Madrid and Barcelona and we’re sure you’ll agree. A virtual tour of the Cloudworks website will help you get an idea of what you will find. What are you waiting for?