E-Mails Are Making You Anxious? Here's How to Handle It

Imagine that it's 11 pm and you're getting ready to sleep. But something's bothering you. You edge towards your phone that has been buzzing with notifications.

You recognise the tone; those are e-mails. Maybe you'll just take a quick peek and then go to sleep. But what if it's your supervisor or the CEO? What if the company's experiencing a major issue that you caused?

If this sounds familiar, you might have e-mail anxiety. But fret not; you're not alone. 

 

E-mail anxiety?

E-mail anxiety is a deep-rooted phobia of looking through your inbox and coupled with an innate inability not to. It can happen at any time, and sufferers feel intense anxiety. They are worried about both receiving e-mails and having to read them. 

Did you know that an average worker spends about four hours a day reading and replying to messages? 

Every day, for employees suffering anxiety, there is a battle between wanting to stay productive and being paralysed with nerves. 

 

How do e-mails cause anxiety?

E-mail anxiety has existed for a while, but the work from home trend caused by the pandemic has made it worse. Now, with employees working from home, it has become harder to attain a work-life balance. 

The extra pressure from the pandemic, increased working hours, and expectations have led to a mental health crisis. 

If HR does not do anything quickly, the psychological well-being of employees will take a massive hit. 

A study titled "Stress and anxiety in the digital age" theorised that humans are becoming overly dependant on their phones, which leads to constant distraction and bad sleeping habits. 

The blue screen from laptops and phones makes it harder for people to fall and stay asleep. The poor sleep habit tends to mean poorer resilience and increased levels of anxiety and stress. 

You're just chilling at 9 pm when suddenly you receive an e-mail notification from your boss. "What could this mean?"

How can I manage excessive e-mails?

1. Take your e-mails off your smartphone. However, it does not stop the stress and anxiety surrounding in-office and desktop messages. 

2. If your problem is the overloading of e-mails, you need to speak to your manager about it. There's no better way to handle this.

3. Do not CC unnecessary people to your e-mails. Look through the recipients. Do you need them all? Can you remove those who do not need it? If this becomes the best practice for the entire organisation, there WILL BE a dramatic drop in e-mail volume.

4. Add an Out Of Office folder to the inbox. Any e-mail that comes through when you're not working will go into a separate file for you to read during working hours. 

5. Cleanse the entire inbox and remove all unwanted toxins from your account. You can also unsubscribe from newsletters or e-mails that do not add value or help you do your job. 

6. Try to set a time within your day to read and reply to e-mails, rather than reading them continuously. Turn off the notifications so you will not feel the temptation to check. 

7. Lastly, if an e-mail thread is longer than three e-mails deep, you should just give them a call or meet them. You can resolve issues easier and faster with a five-minute call than endless e-mail chains. 

 

How can I overcome e-mail anxiety?

When it comes to the problem of unmanageable anxiety, you should take a step back and breathe. This pandemic took a lot of toll on us all. We've constantly been working, developing unhealthy habits, and burned out. 

When you feel the panic is setting in, walk away from your workspace and step outside for a few minutes. Go for a walk, practice some mindfulness, and understand that whatever this e-mail will say, it is not the apocalypse. 

Like most anxiety, it is not the end result we fear, it is the fear of fear that is debilitating. 

 

If you're an employer and wish to help your employees through e-mail anxiety, you should also become more self-aware and take some responsibility. 

The key is to know your recipient. It is why, especially online, we need to take the time to build chances for people to cultivate interpersonal relationships with one another. Trust does not just magically appear, we need to develop and nurture it. When a person trusts the recipient, the e-mail anxiety will decrease. 

 

Source: HRD

 

 

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