Digital stress and the wellbeing hacks to reduce it

Digital stress is something that is becoming an increasingly talked about, especially as many of us now spend a lot of time staring at screens as part of our jobs. 

Likewise, when we want to communicate with friends and family, or even unwind in the evening, we often find ourselves in front of yet another screen.

But with so much time immersed in the digital world, it’s easy to experience the negative effects, especially on our mental health. 

At EcoSend, we are on a mission to do things differently as an email platform, but also as a company. 

In today’s post, we want to raise awareness of stress, including stress related to digital activities, so that you can recognise it and take positive actions to improve your wellbeing. 

Our digital lives at a glance

• The average UK adult spends 76% of their waking hours online – Bionic 
• 89% of smartphone interactions are initiated by the user – Dr Heitmayer at LSE
• One in three adults experiences high or extreme levels of pressure or stress ‘always’ or ‘often’ – Mental Health UK
• Over 33.7 million working days are lost each year in the UK due to work-related ill health, including stress – HSE
• Infinite scrolling wastes over 200,000 human lifetimes daily – Freedom

What is digital stress?

Digital stress is the name given to negative psychological impacts which can occur due to the use of digital technology. 

With the demands to always be online, plus respond quickly to messages and notifications, digital stress is being increasingly experienced. 

It can manifest in ways such as:

Information overload: When you receive constant notifications and messages. Also, when you view lots of information digitally each day due to your work, or when reading news stories. 

Work/life balance issues: You might find it difficult to disconnect after work, especially if you work remotely or use instant communication tools (i.e. Slack or Monday).

Notification anxiety: Feeling stressed from receiving frequent alerts, including when there is the expectation of immediate replies.

Digital addition: Social media platforms in particular are notorious for encouraging compulsive checking of phones, apps or platforms. There is also a worry of missing out on information if you don’t check back often enough.

Why do we need to pay attention to our stress levels?

Many of us know we are stressed, but continue on without taking a pause to relieve that stress. Often, this is out of necessity. But if we keep going and never take that break, stress can wreak havoc on our minds and bodies. Ironically, digital stress can make us less effective at work, as it can impact our creativity and productivity.

If you look up the impact of stress on your physical health, it can impact practically every function in the body. In fact, if you’ve ever seen a doctor about any health condition, stress was likely mentioned as a possible cause for your symptoms. 

Too much stress can increase cortisol levels, which in turn can put us permanently in fight or flight mode. 

But with digital stress specifically, commonly reported symptoms include:

• Reduced attention span and concentration
• Sleep disturbances
• Increased anxiety 
• Lower productivity levels

Therefore, recognising digital stress and taking steps to lower it is important, especially in this increasingly digital world, where more of us are spending a significant amount of time online. 

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Reducing digital stress while you’re still at work

Granted, many tips to reduce digital stress involve switching off from work. But it’s just as important to take care of your wellbeing while you are at work, especially if your job involves a lot of digital activity. 

Listen to calming Spotify playlists

Spotify has many playlists designed to encourage a calm and productive working environment. Listening to such music during times of stress, or whenever you need to focus can really help. Or, if you don’t have Spotify, you can find many similar playlists on YouTube.

Work in focused sprints

Use your smart watch or the timer on your phone to create focused sprints. Aim to get that section of work completed within that time, so that when the time is up, you can have a ‘reward’ such as a break or a conversation with friends. If you struggle with procrastination, working in short sprints can help you focus, ensuring that your workday doesn’t drag on for longer than it should. 

Go for a walk when you’re stressed, annoyed, or creatively stuck 

It is a simple fact of life that at work, you will feel frustrated at least some of the time. Whatever the issue happens to be, the worst thing you can do is send a reply right away. Instead, going for a walk can help refresh your mind and bring perspective to the situation. Even if you’re not annoyed but just super stressed due to your workload, a quick walk can also make a huge difference. 

Set digital boundaries 

You’ve heard of setting your email to out of office when you’re on holiday. But on a daily basis, you can also take steps to ensure your rest time isn’t disturbed by work notifications:

• Turn off non-essential email alerts (this can also reduce your email carbon footprint!)
• Check emails and messages at set times
• Mute work apps after work hours
• Set ‘away’ statuses on work platforms to let people know when you’ll be able to reply
• If possible, keep work emails/apps off your personal phone

LinkedIn have been posting about the need for digital boundaries to separate work and life commitments. They stated that “Being always-on isn’t a badge of honour. You can be committed to your job and still have a life.  It’s OK to say no politely, professionally, and without guilt.”

We also love this digital wellbeing resource from CFCS. 

Do a digital detox

Sometimes, the best way to manage digital stress is to step away from all things digital completely in the form of a digital detox. 

The idea of a digital detox is that you abstain from using any digital technology for a set period, such as a week. So no phone, social media, emails or YouTube. Often, the detox happens at a set location, such as a dedicated digital detox retreat. 

In the UK, we found a website called Unplugged which offers 20 ‘digital detox cabins’ to choose from. Surrounded by trees, your scrolling is replaced by the great outdoors and all of the wellbeing benefits that nature can bring. 

For those who can’t go all in, even taking a break from social media can be beneficial. As can creating set times when you won’t be online to give your mind a rest from the influx of blue light and information overload. 

Adopt a four day week

If you own a business or are self-employed, a four day week could literally shave 20% off your digital stress levels, since you’ll no longer be available for five days straight. 

Working Monday to Friday became the norm in 1926, when Henry Ford implemented the 40 hour work week for factory workers. Since it’s a whopping 100 years on, many companies agree it’s high time for a change. 

In terms of reducing digital stress, working four days would create a better work/life balance. It would mean that workers have three full days off to recharge their batteries. In one UK study, a four day week resulted in a 65% reduction in sick days being taken. 

A four work week has also been shown to deliver environmental benefits due to the reduced commutes and other work-related activities. 

Work in customer service? These wellbeing tips are for you 

Customer service is one of those jobs that seems easy from the outside, but is actually 

a lot more difficult than most people can appreciate. Unfortunately, customer service agents are most likely to experience digital stress, especially if they work in an industry which experiences a high volume of complaints. 

At EcoSend, we’re very lucky to have Chris, who oversees our customer service. Crucially, Chris is always sharing wellbeing tips with the team. 

Chris has added some comments about the wellbeing steps he takes to be able to provide his renowned level of excellent customer service. He hopes it will help anyone else who works in a similar role. 

Mentally switching off: 

• Breaking up the day with walks (preferably in nature). I feel physiologically tense if I spend my whole day hunched over staring at a screen. Humans were meant to spend way more time outside and moving around. 
• Putting my phone on greyscale to reduce scrolling time
• Switching up working locations (i.e. morning in a workspace or cafe and my afternoon at home)
• Remote-first work has a ton of benefits, but spending my whole day in the same 4 walls (and I also live alone), without any human contact is unhealthy. Cafe in the AM gives some casual socialising, time around other humans and also supports my local community.
• Background ambient music. Helps me to dial into work and focus on deep work
• After work activities like art and salsa classes are also good options. Movement and socialising to balance out the working day

Physical activities: Chris loves getting hit with sticks. The proper term for this is Banya, which can be found at The Bath House in London. Similar to massage therapy, Banya uses a range of therapeutic techniques including hot and cold plunges, scrubs and ‘aromatic leaves’ (which I assume is the bit that leads to the stick hitting?)

Chris advises: “It’s something about the hot and cold temperature alternating that makes a positive physiological shift. Great for getting out of a ‘funk’. Just be careful not to overdo time in the sauna (very hot!) or time in the ice bath (very cold!)”

How EcoSend is making marketing a more ethical thing to do – and why it can also have a positive impact on wellbeing!  

Even if you manage to reduce your digital stress, you still need a way of marketing your products and services so that your business makes money. 

Since we specialise in email marketing here at EcoSend, it’s the perfect time to tell you why the email industry as a whole is a little different in the marketing space. 

Email has been a thing since 1976. Ironically, that’s the same year that Steve Jobs founded Apple, but long before he had us absorbing so much digital content on their products. 

To this day, one of the great things about email marketing is that you are free from the algorithms of social media. That’s because to succeed at email, quality rather than quantity is the key. 

Yes, you do need to pay attention to aspects such as the time you send your emails, plus other stuff which makes you look credible as a sender. However, email marketing isn’t about that instant gratification of likes, comments or shares. Instead, you aim for decent open and click-through rates, and adjust your strategy as needed to maintain these. 

For those of you thinking there’s no money in email marketing, it actually boasts the highest ROI of any marketing channel, generating an industry average of $42 for every $1 spent. Why? Well, you can’t do anything online without an email address, meaning the audience of email is also huge – 4.6 billion users to be precise. 

Simply put, follow the formula of what works (across the email industry), nurture your audience, and you’ll get good results. 

Email newsletters are lovely to write

At EcoSend, we also have a weekly newsletter, which is aptly named the EcoSend Weekly. We create these in our newsletter platform, which you can access with every paid subscription. 

A newsletter is a really personal way to connect with your subscribers. Instead of a branded social media post, which can be a bit ‘Arghhh buy from me now or I will delete this!’, it’s just my keyboard and my thoughts. 

The fact that there is no such thing as ‘email influencers’ is also really nice. Nobody is chasing fame or recognition, we’re simply sharing what’s been happening in the week at EcoSend and the wider world. Everyone on our list has agreed to hear from us because they’ve signed up and completed our double opt-in form. 

When you reach the end of the email, there is no further scrolling. Until next week, you won’t hear from us again, unless you choose to visit our website or interact with us. 

We’re reducing the carbon footprint of email

Here is another problem with digital communication: it has a carbon footprint. 

If the internet were a country, it would be the 4th largest emitter of CO2. Shockingly, the carbon footprint of the internet is actually larger than the aviation industry. 

So if you’re interested in wellbeing, you might also want to switch to sustainable tools across your marketing stack, like green web hosting and also our eco-friendly email marketing platform. 

Many of our customers have switched from the likes of Mailchimp and Brevo to reduce the carbon footprint of their campaigns. But also, to benefit from the dedicated customer service of Chris, whom we mentioned above. 

Wait, how can I see my email CO2 reductions?: In your EcoSend dashboard, we’ll give you a rundown of the CO2 saved and also the number of trees we’ve planted on behalf of your business. Try our Email Carbon Calculator tool to see the environmental impact of your emails. By switching to EcoSend, you can immediately start lowering your email carbon footprint! 

Are you a purpose-driven business? Choose EcoSend for your email marketing

EcoSend is the world’s first email platform to prioritise sustainable email marketing. 

With EcoSend, we give you all the tools and features you need to succeed with your email campaigns. But we lower the carbon footprint of your emails to make them better for the planet. 

We’re always looking for purpose-driven businesses to join us, so that we can offer you something different in the email marketing space. 

Choose your EcoSend plan and we’ll give you 7 days to try us for free.

Or, do you have a question about our sustainable marketing platform? Please drop us a message and we’ll be in touch.