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Can’t Switch Off!

May 22, 2018 | News, Employment Health Assessment, Health Promotions, Occupational Health

One in three stressed workers check emails at night

A third of stressed-out workers regularly check their emails in the middle of the night, according to new research.

A study by mattress manufacturer eve Sleep in partnership with Mental Health UK also found more than three quarters (79%) of people struggle to switch off at bedtime.

In addition, the study found six in 10 people often wake suddenly at night, thinking about work and other worries. for more on this article from the SHP Safety&Health Practitioner click here.

Are you struggling to switch off, is your mind firing up when all you want to do is go to sleep, are you tempted to check your emails constantly? You’re not alone, with the leap in technological connectivity being able to constantly check social media and emails  has become a problem in todays society. If you cant switch off, you could potentially be on the road to physical and mental destruction. With prolonged disruption in sleep patterns leading to poor mental concentration and decline in physical performance. This will eventually lead to disruption in family and work place settings.

” I accidently dropped my phone on Saturday, rather than lose the plot I felt strangely free. No more pings from Facebook or emails, I’d inadvertently disconnected from the chaos and it felt good. I was free to be in the moment ” Anon.

Email or social media can take up as much or as little of your day as you choose. How much time you spend on it is really a question of self-control, which is why it’s crucial to devise a daily routine for checking email and to understand the obstacles that can throw you off course.

Here at Safewell our Occupational Health team suggest you have a system in place that works with your natural creative rhythms and sets expectations for those you work with, it becomes exponentially easier to stay focused and execute the tasks that really matter. Here’s how to get started.

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Start your day with meaningful work
Its rarely productive to check your email first thing in the morning. In fact, it’s usually counter-productive to start your day by letting other people’s demands set your priorities. Instead, devote the first 60–90 minutes of your day to a task that advances your meaningful work goals. This way you are doing your most important and challenging work when your brainpower is at its peak rather than later in the day, when you’re hurried and your energy is depleted.
Don’t check your email more than two to three times a day
There are two types of emailers: reactors, who rely on notifications and near-constant monitoring of their inboxes to nibble away at their email throughout the day, and batchers, who set aside specific chunks of time to power through their email so they can ignore it the rest of the day. Not surprisingly, batchers are significantly more effective when it comes to getting stuff done, and according to recent research, they’re also less stressed. To become a batcher, I recommend setting aside 30–60 minutes in the late morning and a similar amount of time in the mid- to late afternoon for checking email. This way you can tie up loose ends and leave work with a clear conscience.
Specify blocks of time for batch processing your email and put them on your calendar
By setting aside time on your calendar you explicitly commit to devoting a certain amount of energy to clearing your email inbox. Doing this makes it’s easier to move forward with other tasks, knowing that you’ll have time to tend to your email later. More importantly, it also requires you to commit to blocks of time when you are not checking email.Extra credit: It might also be a good idea to carve out blocks of time on your calendar for meaningful work, even if it’s just once a day first thing in the morning. If we don’t explicitly plan to do the work that matters, it tends to fall by the wayside. Putting something on your calendar means you are committing to it.
Treat your calendar time blocks like actual meetings
That means you show up, you start on time, and you finish on time. There may not be other people present at this “meeting,” but the point is to respect your time just as you would respect someone else’s at a meeting. If you’ve scheduled a block of time for meaningful work, give it all of your attention and effort. Don’t give up if it takes 10–20 minutes to get in the zone.
Use VIP email notifications
If you’d like to stick to specific blocks of time for checking email but you have a special someone who will freak out if you don’t tend to their email within five minutes of receiving it, compromise by using VIP notifications. On an iPhone and you can designate certain people as VIPs so their emails go to a separate VIP inbox. You can also configure your notifications to play a special tone when that inbox gets a message. If you have an Android phone, you can use the Gmail app to set up a similar system for notifications when messages arrive from predesignated priority senders. This method helps you ignore your email when you need to without worrying you’ll miss something crucial.
Avoid leaving your email open in the background
Research has shown that just having your email program open in the background of your computer screen as you focus on another task, even if the window is minimized, can decrease performance. Even if your email isn’t front and center, your brain still knows it’s there in the background and devotes a certain amount of energy to monitoring it, which takes away from your ability to truly execute the task at hand. Avoid such distractions by quarantining your email in a separate area from your main workspace.
Mind the switching costs
Every time you stop doing a task you are working on to check your email, you incur what researchers call a “switching cost.” Particularly if you’re doing any kind of work that requires deep concentration (aka creative flow) such as writing, coding, or assembling a presentation, it typically takes at least 25 minutes to get properly back into the task after you’ve interrupted yourself. Even worse, multiple studies have shown that the more frequently you check your email, the less productive you are and the less happy you are. That’s a huge price to pay for a quick glance at your inbox.
Be aware that willpower declines over the course of the day
You do not have an infinite supply of willpower. Every time you exert your willpower during your workday, you have a little bit less left over. When it comes to email this means it becomes more difficult to resist the temptation to check it as the day goes on. It also becomes more challenging to make good decisions and compose messages as your best self. The good news is that once you’re aware of the rhythms of willpower, you can use them to your advantage: Why not try using your late-morning email block to respond to the messages that demand a maximum of craft and composure and your afternoon block to reply to relatively mindless emails.
Set expectations publicly
Once you’ve defined your email schedule, tell people about it. I cannot stress how helpful it is to openly discuss communication ground rules with bosses, coworkers, and clients before problems arise. Ask your boss how swiftly you need to respond to her emails—within 15 minutes? 60 minutes? 24 hours? outside of work? You may be surprised by her answer or you may be disappointed, but at least you’ll know. Share your work practices with coworkers so they understand how to best communicate with you and you with them, such as asking them to email you with nonurgent questions and come to your desk with urgent ones. Tell your clients upfront what kind of response time they can expect from you—for example, a same-day response on emails before 3 p.m. while their project is active—before they come to a different conclusion on their own. If you don’t want to be available on email at all hours, you need to proactively set expectations with others and stick to them religiously.
If you’re an employer and have concerns over an employee with stress issues at work, or are having issues with stress yourself, then Safewell can help and advise you further on the best course of action to follow.

Follow the links for more info:

Safewell’s Occupational Health, Stress and Well being service.

Safewell’s counselling service.

NHS – Stress advice service.

 

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Georgina Williams
April 20, 2022

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We have worked with Safewell for many years and are retained clients, so we have developed an excellent working relationship with the team. However, this really came into its own when Covid 19 appeared.

As a Plumbing and Heating business, we were able to carry on working during the lockdown but only for responding to emergencies. We were obviously very concerned about the health and safety of our employees and before we even had chance to get in touch with Safewell, they had emailed us offering their assistance. It is hard to put down on paper how that made us feel - we like everyone else felt totally at sea, which way to turn, what to do? But Safewell were there guiding, supporting and being totally brilliant. Their attention to detail is very impressive and reassuring and we feel able to ask lots of questions without feeling silly.

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