Is Email Stressing You Out?

Few people would disagree that email makes our lives easier. But misusing email can cause problems. And I'm not talking about hitting the "reply all" button when you didn't mean to.
电子邮件让我们的生活更轻松，这点很少有人会提出异议。但是滥用电子邮件可能会出现问题。我说的可不是你不小心点了“回复所有”按钮。

Answering all those emails and processing all that information can overload the brain, causing stress.
回复所有这些电子邮件以及处理所有这些信息会让大脑负担过重从而造成压力。

So says the Future Work Centre, a business based in London. This company carries out psychological research on people's experiences in their workplaces.
总部位于伦敦的未来工作中心(the Future Work Centre)也这么说。这家公司对人们在工作场所的各种经历进行了心理学研究。

Thecentre'sRichard MacKinnon was the lead writer of a report on messaging habits. He calls email a double-edged sword. In other words, email can be both good and bad. Americans also use the saying cuts both ways for something like a double-edged sword.
该中心的理查德·麦金农（Richard MacKinnon）是这篇关于讯息传递习惯的报告的主要作者。他称电子邮件是一柄双刃剑。换句话说，电子邮件有利有弊。美国人还经常使用cuts both ways 这种说法来表达双刃剑这类意思。

But back to the culture ofemailing.
但是让我们回到发电子邮件这种文化吧。

Emails provide a useful way to communicate. But they could add totensionin the mind, causing stress.
电子邮件提供了一种有效的沟通方式。但是它们可能会增加大脑紧张造成压力。

Come rain or shine, some office workers are under pressure to read and answer emails all day long.
有些上班族整天处于查看和回复电子邮件的压力之下，风雨无阻。

Jonathan Rowe has an office job in London. His complaint is a common one: too many emails. He says reading work emails when you're at home blurs the boundaries between work and leisure.
乔纳森·罗（Jonathan Rowe）在伦敦做办公室工作。他的抱怨很常见：电子邮件太多了。他说，在家时查看工作邮件模糊了工作和休息之间的界限。

"Just general day-to-day pressure to be available all the time, to answer emails all the time, to perhaps eat into people's leisure time and blur the boundaries between work and leisure..."
他说，“成天都有日常工作的压力，成天回复各种邮件可能侵蚀了人们的休息时间，模糊了工作和休息之间的界限。”

Psychologists are concerned about the pressure that workers bring on themselves. Dr. Richard MacKinnon spoke with VOA News on Skype.
心理学家担心员工们自己造成的这种压力。麦金农博士通过Skype接受了美国之音的采访。

He says that email can be a valuable, time-saving communication tool. But it can also be a source of stress and even anger for many of us.
他说，电子邮件是一种有价值的，可以节省时间的沟通工具。但是它也是我们多数人压力甚至是愤怒的来源。

He adds that the stress does not come from the number of emails you get. The problems result from when and how you deal with them.
他补充说，这种压力并非源自你收到的电子邮件的数量。问题出在你什么时候，以及如何处理这些邮件。

According to the study, there are two very stressful email behaviors. One is leavingemailon all day – and never signing off. The other is reading and answering emails early in the day and late at night.
根据这项研究的说法，有两种充满压力的电子邮件行为。一是让电子邮件成天在线，从不退出账户。另一种是很早和很晚还在查看和回复电子邮件。

"Checking your email very early in the morning, or checking it late at night, or leaving your email on all day, that has a much stronger relationship with email pressure. So it's not necessarily about how many emails we receive..."
“大清早或深夜检查电子邮件，或者成天让电子邮件在线，这和电子邮件压力有着更强的关系。所以，压力并不一定是因为我们每天收到多少电子邮件......”

Which jobs are most affected by email stress?
哪类工作受电子邮件压力影响最大？

But not all jobs are equally stressed by email. The jobs most affected by email stress are:
但是并非所有工作都受到电子邮件同等的压力。最受电子邮件压力影响的是以下这些工作：

marketing,
营销、

public relations,
公共关系、

media and
媒体和

Information Technology
信息技术。

Educational experts have also written several reports on how email overloads are stressing out teachers.
教育专家还就邮件过多如何给教师造成很大压力写了几篇报告。

Ways to cut down on your email stress
减轻电子邮件压力的办法

MacKinnon says bad email behaviors are linked to higher levels of stress in office workers. The Future Work Centre report gives several suggestions on avoiding email stress.
麦金农表示，不好的电子邮件习惯同上班族压力更大存在关联。未来工作中心的报告给出了避免电子邮件压力的几点建议：

Use email with a plan. Do not just react to endless email alerts. If you use an email application, or app, on your device, close it down when you want to be left alone.
有计划地使用电子邮件。不要只是对无休止的邮件提醒做出反应。如果使用电子邮件应用程序，当你不想被打扰时就关闭应用程序。

Use your "Out of Office" reply more often.
更多地使用“不在办公室”自动回复。

If you need to communicate with a co-worker, call or better still walk to their office and talk about it.
如果你需要同一位同事沟通，打电话给他们，或者走到他们的办公室去讨论更好。

Be careful with the "reply all" option. For example, if you are accepting an invitation to attend training, just write back to those who need to know. Trust me. Other workers on that mailing list will thank you.
小心“回复所有”选项。例如，如果你要接受参加培训的邀请，只回复给需要知道的那些人。相信我，邮件列表上的其他人也会感谢你的。

And accept the fact that if a matter is urgent employers will call you about it.
接受这个现实，如果情况紧急，雇主会打电话通知你的。

The Future Work Centre report claims that in 2014, people sent an estimated 196.3 billion emails. The average adult spent more than an hour a day answering emails.
未来工作中心的报告声称在2014年，人们发送了大约1963亿封电子邮件。成年人平均每天花费1个小时来回复电子邮件。

Email is certainly not going anywhere. So, it is important to control your emails and not the other way around.
电子邮件肯定跑不了，所以，最重要的是控制你的电子邮件，而不是恰恰相反。

I'm Anna Matteo.