I found your site through your guest post on Sonia who I found on twitter. (convoluted but hey ho that’s the internet a bunch of treasure hunts)

Anyway-I wanted to say that the constant emailing checking is distracting. It does help to give yourself a set amount of times a day to check with a set timer for making you stop. (kind of a flylady technique: http://www.flylady.net )

Thanks for an intersting post and interesting website.

As for the case of working in an environment where receiving timely emails is important: Use multiple accounts OR use filters to separate sources that are typically timely from everything else. Surely you can check personal email much less frequently, for example. Or you need email from your boss quickly but from co-workers less quickly. Or you need email from a key group of 5 people involved with your project.
.-= Jason Cohen´s last blog ..90-minute podcast on creative marketing =-.

Let’s take a look at this.

I asked: “What’s in there that will really make a difference to what you’re doing for the day?”

In your case, something in there really might change what you’re doing for the day. A student might need to drop by; one of your peers may want to drop by and chat for a bit; one of your guest speakers needs to bail and you need to plan to cover for them. All good things to know as they come up.

If your job is customer service – which seems to be the expectations of you, your students, and your institution- then to be effective is to provide timely customer service. There may be more efficient ways to be effective in your case, but if your “job” really is to check email…then check away, presuming you want to keep your job.

Also, this post was about how we think about the process of checking email. I’m recommending moving beyond random checking so that you can be in the driver’s seat of your time and attention; if you’re intentionally looking for information at times you determine rather than apprehensively and reactively seeing what’s in there, you’re not really “checking email.”

“Do what works for you” is one of my guiding principles and is what I help my clients and readers do, so I find it a bit odd that you’re in disagreement with me. Perhaps the deeper frustration is that what you’re “required” to do really isn’t working for you? I don’t know enough about your situation to say, but again, something was triggered here. I also find it interesting that your conclusions are “live and let live” and “stop preaching!,” yet your tone and content seems to be counter to those very suggestions.

It was not my intention to make anyone feel guilty or “to preach” – although if doing so made someone pause, just for a second, and helped her think about what’s working for her and what’s not, I’m fine with that. So I guess I’ll end with this: I may have been the target of your frustration, but was I the source of your frustration?

p.s. I’ve taught college courses. I’m a coach. Our realities are not that different. I’m open to start over and try again. How about you?

Perhaps people can stop making others feel guilty about the way they handle technology — how about this as a mantra? Do what works for you and some of you — stop preaching at the rest of us who handle technology differently! Wow, what a concept – live and let life.

So I bow to King Inbox and pay him homage, and he rewards me with the gift of inner peace. (:
.-= Pace´s last blog ..How I overcame my fear of running out of money =-.

Normally it’s 10:00 after getting important writing done. 1:00 after lunch. 3:30 because that’s right before I quit for the day. And 7:00 for personal email.
.-= Beth Dargis´s last blog ..Seeing with New Eyes or Boggle Anyone? =-.

I’ll be writing more about this very soon.

@Nick: I think the problem with email is that it the habit works below the level of cognition. I hope to post about this later today, so maybe it’ll make more sense.

@Jared: I’ve been waiting to hear about the new AwayFind, Jared. And thanks for the encouragement – I have a lot more in the pipes about email.

@Pace:

Do you have any advice for dealing with this sort of inbox stress?

Yes, I do. After writing this post, I realized I have a lot more to say, but briefly – there’s way too much value put on an empty Inbox. We confuse being clear about what we need to do with having an empty Inbox, when in fact it’s easy to separate the two.

Let me ask it this way: if you had to choose between doing a few Really Important Tasks/Projects and having a clear Inbox, which would you choose?

What if it turns out that our relationship to email is such that, though we would choose Really Important Stuff every time, in the moment, we subordinate Really Important Stuff to having a clear Inbox?

So, yeah, I’ve got more coming.

@Beth: I’m curious – why those times?

@Catherine: I’ve been in those organizations. I’ve also been in an organization that did the same thing via phone or radio. Both had the same effect: we spent more time waiting for the call than doing what we were supposed to be doing.

Thanks for your feedback about email and messages – sometimes I worry that I’m too big of a stickler for people to stand, but in practice there is a difference.

@J.D: You’re on it, man! Generally, I process it late morning, after lunch, and towards the end of the day, although here recently I’ve been checking it more as things have been in flux. Yet I’ve still noted how little difference it makes to what I’m doing – so I’m going back to processing it less frequently.