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Checking Email as Soon as You Wake up Could be Ruining Your Day (cnbc.com)
From a CNBC report: If you're like most people, you wake up to an alarm ringing on your smartphone. Then you probably roll over and check your work email. That's a dangerous way to start the day, according to a woman who studies happiness for a living. Reading just one negative email could lead you to report having a bad day hours later, says Michelle Gielan, former national CBS News anchor. [...] Before you check your email or the news, put yourself in the right frame of mind by taking two minutes to draft a positive email to someone in your social support network. Thank a friend or family member for their support, or praise a colleague on their recent work, she suggests. After you send your upbeat email, move on to your regular routine of checking your work email or the news. That two-minute message primes your brain to see everything in a more positive light.
reading work-related emails while NOT AT WORK, could be ruining your day.
For what it is worth, this has been widely reported for years. I decided to try to put myself in a positive frame of mind before checking email-- not the social support network BS, but some kind of happy thought. Once you get in the mode of being overwhelmed for the day, it is hard to recover.
/. to give me something other than news to wake me up.)
However, since early morning is one of my most productive times usually, I do need to get moving quickly. (And sadly, I do often turn to
"If you're like most people, you wake up to an alarm ringing on your smartphone. "
If you're like most people over 45 you wake up because of the horribly urgent pressure on your bladder. Several times a night. The you wake up in a cold fearful sweat two minutes before your alarm is due because you're thinking about utility bills or the joy of family life. So you never actually hear an alarm, despite waking up feeling desperate and alarmed multiple times every morning.
At least that's what they tell me.
The same goes with reading stressful or negative news, according to a study Gielan conducted with Arianna Huffington and her husband, happiness researcher and author Shawn Achor.
Society pays for a "happiness researcher"?
I don't have work email on my phone. Never will.
I usually don't check work email in any way if I'm not in the office - the major exception being when I'm oncall. But even when I'm oncall, no work email on my phone, that way madness lies.
It can wait.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Americans and their idea of a work day... Weird. Sure 9-5 doesn't always work because shit happens. But if shit happens so often that you have a routine to make sure you work more than 9 to 5 every day then something is wrong. Getting up at 4 to do at least an hour of work and being in the office before 8 should mean you leave work way before 5 not 5 to 5:20 on average.
Similar here. I have a good job, but am not independently wealthy or any of that horse pucky (though saving like mad to get there). I rarely set an alarm, and mostly wake up before it goes off when I do.
I prioritize going to bed at a reasonable time, and avoid alcohol and especially sugar for at least 2-3 hours before bedtime. We do a crossword before lights out to give a guaranteed 15-30 minutes of non-screen time before lights out and tend to sleep much better than when I did ipad time up to lights out.
I have a smart phone, but choose to avoid getting hooked on it. My work would let me get email on it but they then have the right to wipe it at will if I get terminated, which is a deal breaker for me. If I REALLY am expecting something important I have a work laptop I can fire up. Mainly I use to to double check our German colleagues have not canceled a 7AM meeting before I ride my bike in.
The 2nd level parent comment is a complainy pants and needs to start taking control of his effing life. Get a better job, go to bed earlier, or similar adjustments.
At the risk of breaking the smarmy-fest, I find that my life experience is completely different.
I have young children and a busy workload. I do not have time to ride a bike into work, to avoid eating 2-3 hours before bed, or to sleep more than 6 hours a night. Really, it's more like 4-5.
So I use my phone as an alarm clock. Then, immediately after it wakes me up, I use it to deal with any timely emails while I am sitting on the toilet and waiting for the shower to warm up. I do this because I am aware that my colleagues may need that information to proceed before I arrive at work and it is the only time I will get to spend on email until I have gotten the kids up, kids fed, kitchen cleaned, kids to school, and myself to work. My spouse works too, so there is no homemaker to do these wonderful responsibilities for me.
I expect that most people in my life situation follow the same routine.
Now, while you are contemplating your indignant reply to restate how I should "taking control of my effing life," please keep in mind that some people actually like to work harder than you, for longer than you. And that others may not have the opportunities that you had to "get a better job, go to bed earlier, or (make) similar adjustments." Maybe you can use some of that bountiful time you have in your monk-like day to think about how arrogant and elitist your post comes across as, and how to restate your opinion more considerately in the future so the other 99% of us don't blow you off.