How to check email two times a day
April 15th, 2008Tim Ferriss popularized the idea that you should limit the amount of time you spend checking email every day. He espouses a philosophy of life called the low-information diet. By following these guidelines, you get more done and, more importantly, feel less stressed.
One of his suggestions about email spread across the blogosphere very quickly because of its simplicity and practicality. He recommends that you check email only twice a day (or preferably less often) and strictly adhere to that rule. I started following these guidelines a few days ago, but I easily relapse. Nevertheless, I do a few things to try to stay on the wagon:
- Add a message to all outgoing emails:
EXPERIMENT: I will be checking email 2 times a day at 1pm and 6pm pacific time.
If you need me earlier, then please contact me below.
And of course I put my contact information below. With this signature, I do not worry about missing out on important and urgent information or replies.
- Delete all links, shortcuts, and bookmarks to GMail
- Set up a script to automatically open up GMail at 1pm and 6pm every day. In Ubuntu, I write just one line in crontab:
0 13,18 * * * export DISPLAY=:0 && firefox https://mail.google.com/
Linux makes hard things easy.
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April 30th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
An e-mail is so much less stressful than getting a phone call or having someone stop by. I’d rather tip the balance of communication toward e-mail.