Why Email Is So Stressful, Even Though It’s Not Actually That Time-Consuming

The average professional spends 4.1 hours per day responding to work messages. But psychologically, it carries a disproportionate weight: regardless of how much time we actually spend, it feels like we are always answering email, and always stressed about the unanswered messages waiting in our inboxes. Keeping track of every email you receive over a two-week period might reveal some interesting insights into why. For example: every time we say “yes” to a request, it begets even more emails. If you agree to be a guest on someone’s podcast, they’ll follow up with additional emails requesting your bio, your headshot, a pre-interview call, and so on. It’s easier to say “no” to the less-deserving requests once you realize how many you get; seeing that you get, say, 10 requests per day makes it easier to justify saying no to 9 of them. Finally, conducting an email audit might show you what a small proportion of the messages you get are actually important. If only 10% of your received messages matter, maybe it’s not quite as stressful to think about.