I frequently find myself checking e-mail and then realize I should be doing other things.
I take the time to check my e-mail because it's relaxing.
I frequently use e-mail as a way to take a break from other activities I'm engaged in.
Sound like someone you know? This "rapid communication" recently published in the journal CyberPsychology & Behavior indicates that this might be procrastination rationalized as an "e-break."
The items above were the basis of the "e-break" scale designed by James Baker and James Phillips, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Victoria, Australia. An e-break is a short break from other tasks to do e-mail, a tendency that they argue reflects defensive avoidance. One of the questions they sought to answer in their study, "E-mail, Decisional Styles, and Rest Breaks," was do e-breakers actually spend more time on non-work related email?
Baker and Phillips collected data from 133 employees of a small marketing company as well as students. (Although they don't make it clear just how this broke down in the study itself, the relatively low mean age of 22.6 years, makes me think that this was largely a student sample.) These volunteers completed paper-and-pencil measures of self-esteem, decision-making style (including categories labeled buck-passing, procrastination, hypervigilance and vigilance) and email use. They also followed-up directly by e-mail with the participants to collect data on the amount of time spent using email. My favorite part of this was asking the participants, "Right now, is there a more important activity that you strongly feel you should be doing but decided to do e-mail instead?" (Hey, you could be asking yourself that question right now!)
Overall, 57% of reported e-mail was for work or study. That's still a lot of personal email. Not surprisingly, participants who had workplace access to e-mail (I assume that this was the employee part of their sample), spent more hours per day reading, writing and filtering email, as did participants who were prone to take breaks. Employees with low "buck passing" (not defined in the paper) scores engaged in more and more responsible email use. Employees who accessed e-mail when they had other, more important, things to do were more likely to be "e-breakers." No data were provided to indicate if these e-breaks are in addition to or in lieu of other types of breaks (such as real "water-cooler" breaks).
Unfortunately, as a "Rapid Communication" article in the journal, there was little space for details or an extended discussion. The main point is clear, however, "Personal email use and actual behavioral procrastination were linked to e-breaks (rationalized rest breaks) . . . Individuals who accessed e-mail when they had more important things they should have been doing were significantly more likely to be e-breakers" (p. 707).
E-mail is a ready tool for anyone looking for an excuse to avoid the task at hand. Food for thought as we work at our computers and . . . oops gotta go, just heard the chime that signals a new email in my inbox!
Reference
Baker, J.R., & Phillips, J.G. (2007). E-mail, Decisional Styles, and Rest Breaks. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10, 705-708.
