Want to feel less stressed? Try this

Want to feel less stressed? Psychologists recommend checking your email less.

Research published in the journal Computers in Human Behavio[u]r found that adults who only checked their email a limited times a day were less stressed.

A proportion of 124 adults in the study (including students and professionals) were randomly assigned to only check their email three times a day in one week, with the other participants allowed to check their messages as much as they wanted. This was then reversed in the second week.

The research found all the participants had lower stress rates in the week where they were limited to checking their email three times a day.

"Our findings showed that people felt less stressed when they checked their email less often," says Kostadin Kushlev, the study's lead author. However, that is easier said than done: "Most participants in our study found it quite difficult to check their email only a few times a day," says Kushlev. "This is what makes our obvious-in-hindsight findings so striking: People find it difficult to resist the temptation of checking email, and yet resisting this temptation reduces their stress."

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