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Quit emailing to relax and boost productivity- 5-Sep-2012

Los Angeles: People can relax and be more productive if they don't have constant access to their emails, according to a new study.

Researchers led by the University of California, Irvine found that without email, workers felt destressed and concentrated better on the task at hand, the Los Angeles Times reported. The study included 13 volunteers who were civilian employees at the US Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center outside Boston.

"First we did a baseline measure - we had them work as usual for several days. Then we cut off email for five days, continuing to take our measurements. We couldn't see a discernible trend on days 1 and 2. But at day 5, the pattern started to become clear: People became less stressed after being away from email," Gloria Mark, lead researcher said.

"We used monitors that measured the heart rate and also the intervals between heartbeats to obtain a common measure for stress called heart rate variability," Mark added. "It's counterintuitive. When heart rate variability is low - that means the heart is beating at a steady pace - people are actually under more stress. It's the fight-or-flight syndrome: You're on high alert, your body is prepared to respond. And as a result, your variability goes down a whole lot," Mark said.

The research also found that without email participants walked a lot more to communicate. "They interacted with people face to face, and they reported it as a benefit. They enjoyed it. That sounds like it's healthier too," Mark was quoted as saying by the paper. People reported that they were more productive. They said
they were able to focus on tasks longer. It was borne out by the data.

"On average, people with email switched windows about 37 times per hour. Without email, that was cut in half to 18 times per hour. With email, they spent an average of 394 seconds on any particular window. That went up to 568 seconds without email. This may not seem a lot, but in the world of multitasking it's a huge difference," Mark added.