Another thing that helped me was to have rules that keep my actual inbox as clear as possible, placing the unread messages elsewhere instead.

This keeps the “unread mail count” number from coming up in the dock icon (and thus showing up when apple-tabbing between applications).

In NetNewsWire, I found that unchecking the “Dock icon: show unread count” from my feed reader helped a lot with that too… sometimes the call of the 84 unread messages or feeds is an irresistible siren song.

I have to disagree with this if your job using email as a catalyst for re-prioritizing projects. Often I have a boss at my office door saying did you get my email, I sent it 5 min ago. The best way I’ve learned to handle email is using technologies like Growl. Sure email arrives all the time, but I tend to dismiss anything that does sort it’s way down into a mailbox from the higher ups with growl notification. That is also allowing yourself to control your email without it controlling you. I think shutting it off is a bad idea for anyone working any place where email is a primary catalyst of communication. You could be wasting your time working on next actions for a project that has been dropped in priority instead of working towards a goal that is currently hot.

There are just too many ways to handle/control email without turning it off completely. I’ve never found Growl to get in my way… not if you tweak it just for emails from high priority individuals and not everything.

I take it one step farther: My AirTunes isn’t connected to the internet, so I change my network to it and stream music to the stereo while I work. No e-mail? Hell, no internet!

@Mark:

If you have your email working in a way that’s productive for you, this is a useless tip. (I should always say that, I guess)

In my experience, though, the vast majority of folks are using email non-optimally (to say the least). You might be be surprised to learn how many people don’t know that you can turn email auto-checking off — let alone having the vauguest idea what “Growl” does or how to tweak it.

I feel my basic advice is sound regardless of your system, though: no one will ever clear their inbox for more than a few minutes, and learning to control the compulsion to respond to all the baked-in interruptions generated by stock auto-check notifications is a real ninja trick to almost everyone who’s ever tried it.

Someday notifications will evolve, and this stuff won’t require so much tweaking. But until there’s a more sensitive volume knob, I recommend occasionally hitting the power button. :)

Email is just great for procrastination. I will feel lost without it… but I am sure I will gain a lot in productivity.

Email is modern day crack.

[…] Merlin Mann (through his awesome 43Folders blog) just posted some tips to help decrease distractions via email. Glaringly obvious stuff. But, stuff that I wasn’t really thinking about. […]

[…] Merlin Mann at 43 Folders posts about how to get things done without Mail.app, or at least by minimizing its mesmerizing effect. […]

This week, I set my energy saver settings to turn my monitor OFF after one minute of inactivity. This way I don’t see any alerts, email, bloglines, IMs, etc. I now think TWICE before I shake the mouse to turn the monitor back on (Do I really NEED to do anything on the computer right now?).

This obviously doesn’t work for those that must use the computer all day long, but it should help you realize that you can actually get up out of your chair and go SEE someone instead of sending an email or IM.

Plus, it might actually save a bit of energy, too…

I tend to leave Mail.app closed but leave MacBiff running which at least allows me to see if something important comes in. It works with IMAP accounts and just displays the subject and sender in your menu bar. It’s configurable as to how often it checks.

Oh, and MacBiff also has Growl notification.