The experiment that limited email to three checks a day

What we know

Many of us open every email or chat message the moment the notification arrives. Is that a sign of being good at your job, or does it just wear you out? Kostadin Kushlev and Elizabeth Dunn at the University of British Columbia in Canada tested this with an experiment (2015).

124 adults took part for two weeks. In one week they were asked to check email no more than three times a day. In the other week they could check as often as they liked. Which week came first was decided at random. Because each person experienced both conditions, differences in personality or job matter less. Every day, participants reported how often they checked, how stressed they felt and how productive they felt, among other things.

The results:

• Daily stress was significantly lower in the week with three checks a day.
• Lower stress went along with higher well-being on a range of measures.
• In the week of unlimited checking, people did not feel any more productive.

In their introduction, the authors note that earlier research was mostly correlational, showing that people who deal with more email feel more stress, and that almost no experiments had actually changed how often people check and compared the results.

How to read it

This study is an experiment in which each person switched conditions in random order. Its design allows us to say that checking less often lowered stress.

A few cautions:

• It measured how people felt. Both stress and productivity were self-reported. The study did not measure manager ratings, sales or income.
• Each condition lasted one week. We do not know what happens over months.
• The participants were in Canada. We have not found a similar study from Japan. In workplaces that expect very fast replies, the result may be harder to apply directly.
• It was about email. The study did not test chat tools or social media.

Even so, the belief that “work falls apart unless I check constantly” is worth testing for yourself. In this study, frequent checking did not make people feel more productive. The cost of trying is small: one week, and you can always switch back if it does not suit your job.

A small step for today

• Pick three times to check email. For example: start of the day, after lunch, and before you finish. Write them into your plan when you plan your day in the morning.
• Turn notifications off outside those times. It is easier not to be pinged than to resist opening.
• Leave one channel for urgent matters. Telling your team “call me if it’s urgent” reduces the fear of missing something.
• Try it for one week and compare. Like the study, compare how tired you feel in a limited week and a normal week.

In UPSHIFT, building your email times into the habits “planned my day in the morning” or “decided when and where to do tomorrow’s most important task” makes this easier to keep up.

Sources

• [B7] Kushlev & Dunn (2015) Checking email less frequently reduces stress. Computers in Human Behavior.