How to Stop Constantly Checking Your Work Email (Just in Case)

Just before I left my last job in HR, I noticed some weird goings-on with work email.

(Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell the story about the employee who mixed up his “hello everyone, thanks for coming to our launch event” message with his “hello Clive, look at this epic porno clip, it’s my favourite” one).

Years before Covid, the company had just started allowing people to work from home on occasion. But when they did, they’d often complain about colleagues sending them unnecessarily brusque messages out of nowhere. “I spend the whole evening worrying that I’ve done something wrong,” said one.

I was even more confused when the complained-about messages came from people who were already well-known to be brusque in person (to say the least).

Then I worked out what was happening. Reading a message from a work colleague can feel like you’ve got them in the room with you, impatiently tapping you on the shoulder as you read.

That’s fine when you’re reading a message from a work colleague about work, at your work desk, during official work hours, in your designated place of work.

When you’re reading a message from a work colleague about work, in your comfy bedroom after official work hours have passed, it’s a mental disturbance. How dare that colleague invade your ‘safe’ space with their unnecessary demands!

As a self-employed freelancer, it was common for me to get that “how dare they!” feeling when I open my email late at night. Even though by opening my email late at night, I was actively requesting the subsequent mental disturbance.

(I know. It doesn’t make sense, does it?)

Whether you employ yourself or not, when you’ve got access to work email, and everybody knows you’ve got access to work email, it can be hard to stop checking it, even after everybody else in your house has long gone to bed.

Sometimes, you’re worried about other people’s expectations (I sometimes swing on tenterhooks after firing off a piece of work, eager to hear what the client thinks about it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE).

At others, you check your work email at night, on holiday, or at the weekend absent-mindedly, because you’re so used to checking it all the time when you’re at work. Then you fret all night about a message you shouldn’t have seen until the next day, and when you actually see it again the next day through fresh eyes, you realise it wasn’t anything to worry about.

What I hope I’m demonstrating here is this: when it comes to work email, timing and mindset are everything.

This means:

• Checking work email during your actual work hours, at the place where you do your actual work.
• Removing work email from your phone.
• Developing the will-power not to go back on either of the above.

That’s it.

Clients and colleagues will learn to call you if something’s urgent, or you could straight-up ask them to (though isn’t it strange to have to explain that we’re not chained to email 24/7, our bleary eyes prised open with matchsticks?)

I’m not saying these simple sentences are necessarily easy to implement, and you’ll probably fall off the wagon a few times along the way.

I did.

Now, however, it’s unthinkable for me to check my work email after I’ve closed my laptop for the evening.

(I don’t think anyone else even noticed).