Turn Off Auto-Check And Get Back To Work
Merlin Mann over at 43 Folders is yet another advocate for turning off the auto-check on your email application.
I've done this, and I've advised most of those whom I coach to do so as well. As Merlin writes:
If you’re doing anything with new email more than every few minutes, you might want to rethink your approach. I’m sure that some of you working in North Korean missile silos need real-time email updates, but I encourage the rest of you to consider ganging your email activity into focused (maybe even timed) activity every hour or three. Process, tag, respond to the urgent ones, then get the hell back to work.Indeed. Executives today need fewer interruptions, not more, and certainly not one every 60 seconds. Besides, if anyone TRULY needs you that urgently your phone will ring. So turn off the auto-check, pull down your email every hour or two, and get back to the work at hand. Update: More on managing the e-tide over here. Tip-o-the-hat again to Merlin.