Baku, May 8 (AZERTAC). Are you one of those types that has a strict policy of not checking your work email when you`re not at work? If you are, good on you because you`re doing you and your heart a huge favor. In fact, you could do yourself an even bigger favor by not checking your work email so much when you`re also at work. This wonderful news is certain to make both obsessively diligent workers and taskmaster bosses cringe comes by way of a new study by UC Irvine and the U.S. Army. The study revealed that cutting out the irresistible habit of constantly checking your email reduces stress and dramatically improves your ability to focus.

The study, “A Pace Not Dictated by Electrons,” involved a small group of participants who were attached to heart rate monitors as they used computers in a suburban office setting. The computers were equipped with software sensors to track how often the participants switched between screens. Participants worked in a variety of positions and were evenly split between sexes. The results revealed that the people that checked their email flipped between screens twice as much and were in a constant state of “high alert” as they had more constant heart rates. However, those with no email – they were without email for five blissful days – were not perturbed by technology`s siren song and were observed to have more natural heart rates. “We found that when you remove email from workers` lives, they multitask less and experience less stress,” said UCI informatics professor Gloria Mark, who co-authored the study. The participants who had email felt a persistant itch to check their email and couldn`t help but scratch it: they flicked between screens an average of 37 times per hour. Those who had no email only switched screens about 18 times an hour.

One negative experience that participants reported was that, due to being disconnected from their email, they felt a bit isolated.