Taking a email vacation while on the job can boost job productivity and reduce stress, suggests research by scientists at the University of California, Irvine, and the U.S. Army presented at a meeting of the Association for Computing Machinery in May. In the study,  13 information technology workers agreed to ignore work emails for five days. Researchers found that the co-workers who continued reading emails had more constant elevated heart rates, while the “vacationers” had more natural, variable heart rates. The email vacationers also reported feeling less stress and being better able to do their jobs and stay on task.

So….next time you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed – consider implementing an email vacation, so you can get some real work done!

Wendy Dickinson, Ph.D.

wdickinson@ GROWcounseling.com