Setting boundaries is an important part of cultivating positive mental health. But one of the areas where we may not think we need to set boundaries is in our email inboxes. It’s become increasingly apparent to many of us that email represents an unprecedented means of constant contact. Most people now get email alerts on their mobile phones, and almost everyone always keeps their phone around them. It can be very tempting then to fall into a particular kind of trap – answering all the emails that we get, as soon as we receive them.
This tendency can be tremendously detrimental to a person’s mental health. For most people, the urge to immediately reply to the message in front of them will override whatever desire they may have to not be rude. After all, most people send an email with the expectation that the recipient will reply in short order. As a result, it can be very hard to “turn off” at the end of the workday and separate one’s work time from their personal time. That’s why properly managing one’s email is so important to cultivating a positive outlook through an improved work life balance.
When your email inbox is properly managed, you can better separate the different functions of your life – be that your career, social obligations, or even the odd promotional email. Managing your email seems on its face like a task that’s monumental in nature, but it really isn’t. Services like Mailstrom and Chuck are two separate services that enable you to take control of your email inbox.
They do this in a few keyways:
They allow you not only to organize and purge your email inbox of unwanted messages, but they also allow you to sort messages based on when they were received. This lets you choose when you check certain messages sent “after hours”, putting more control in your hands.
Additionally, both services also have tools that allow you to set your own hours with automatic replies. You can use these to inform senders that you’re currently unavailable but will answer their message when you return to the office. This not only puts the power back into your hands, but it also ensures those who are trying to contact you that you aren’t ignoring them – you’re just enforcing a healthy boundary.
Mailstrom and Chuck can help you to set boundaries and take control of your email. Try them today!
