I used to check and answer my email at least 50 times a day. Multi-tasking by checking email regularly is one of the best things you can do to fry your 🧠.

It was so difficult to change this habit, but when I finally did it it made me so much more productive and creative.

Now I do so just twice a day. And I have 90% fewer emails to check than I did before. It took me 2 hours to set up.

How?

1) I went through the last 3 months of emails and set up a filter that:

• Automatically remove newsletters (and other emails from senders that I know can wait) from my Inbox and
• Put them in relevant folders (“label” in Gmail). I check these folders once a week, or (much) fewer.

While I was at it, I immediately unsubscribed from un-interesting newsletters & spam.

This step took me 1.5 hours, and I keep it up.

2) I set up a recurring task in my task manager (you can also use your digital calendar) for a day when I have the time and mindspace to focus on this topic. For example, Friday is my weekly brainstorming day.

And my trigger to check emails in the “Amsterdam” folder (with lots of emails about cultural events going on) is when I travel to my second hometown Amsterdam. I don’t see these emails earlier, so they can’t distract me!

3) Made it a habit to only check my emails once in the morning and once at the end of the day. If somebody has something super urgent, they can call me (hardly ever happens).

In the beginning (or when I relapse) I download a browser extension* that blocks my inbox at specified times (like “Inbox when ready” – the free version puts a small message in your email signature)

* I wish there was an email client that can be set up to receive emails only twice a day (but send emails always). That would be the perfect solution. If you know of one, let me know!