why you’re addicted to checking emails

How many times during the day do you stop to check your email? Do you have fixed times to do it or are you like those people who refresh their inbox every few minutes in anticipation for the next message?

Addiction to email checking has become a major problem in the modern world. If you feel there’s no harm checking emails again and again and even find yourself a little obsessed with this activity, then it’s highly likely that you may be more addicted than you think. And you’re not alone; this has become the norm unfortunately. The average office worker checks their email inbox 77 times a day. That’s ludicrous!

Our addiction mainly stems from a primal impulse that seeks positive rewards. This innate impulse propels us to check our inbox over and over in the pursuit of the next reward. We start sifting through endless junk mail and keep at it in order to find the worthy messages that bring us unparalleled excitement and pleasure. 

In addition, checking email also triggers a progress paradox. When we prioritize opening an email message as soon as it arrives over doing important work tasks, we trick our brain. As we reduce the number of unread messages in our inbox, we start to feel productive, but in reality, we accomplish nothing significant. No doubt, seeing zero unread messages in our inbox feels like an enticing reward, as it triggers the same neural pathway that gets activated when we accomplish an important task. But let’s face the truth, going through non-essential emails and discarding them repeatedly has no impact on our long-term goals. That’s why it’s crucial that you get rid of this reckless behavior. The progress is just not real and there are better and more important things you could be doing with your precious time.

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