5th of 7 Reasons Why Email on a Smartphone Might Not Be So Smart After All

Reason #5: Mental clutter and overload

Getting email on a smartphone only alerts you to issues at a place and time when there is nothing you can do about them.

And then the Ziegarnik Effect kicks in! The Ziegarnik Effect  says that we remember unfinished, incomplete tasks much more readily than finished or competed ones.

Just think about this yourself for a moment. You would probably struggle to remember 10 things you got done yesterday. But I'll bet you have no problem thinking of 10 things you need to get done in the next day or so! 

So allowing emails to arrive to the smartphone when we are so often not in a position to deal with them effectively adds to our mental clutter. It’s hard to fully focus on the issues that are in front of us right now.

Enough of that sort of things leads to feeling overwhelmed, out of control and starting to suffer from stress. Several studies have shown what ought to be common sense: that we think more deeply if we are not constantly distracted.

And deeper thinking leads to better quality answers, solutions and outcomes for ourselves, our colleagues and our customers.

Isn't that a more desirable than fulfilling a need to be constantly available via email on our smartphone?

All the best!

Steuart