Apart from anything, notifications have the power to clog up your work schedule: a pressure that increases tenfold when you feel under obligation to reply to everything.

“Email is a compilation of your tasks, so everything you do there should be structured and seamless,” says Sivan. “Instead of draining time, it should be a tool that helps you tackle your workload more efficiently. If it’s not doing that, you need to rethink how you’re using it.”

With each email that comes your way, think about whether responding will actually help take your work forward in any meaningful way. Are you replying because you have something specific to communicate? Or are you simply doing so to buy time, or out of a dogged sense of duty?

“Guilt is very corrosive and can be misplaced,” says therapist coach Carolyn Mumby. “Having lots of ‘shoulds’ in our mind is usually never helpful. Try taking a step back and be realistic about what can be achieved in the time you have.

“We can slide into taking on more and more – when actually signalling that we have too much on our plate, and deciding what we will let go of, would be more productive.”

How to banish email guilt in three easy steps