About a happy man –Donald Knuth’s approach to email

A few years ago, drowning in email, I successfully implemented the system known as Inbox Zero, but I soon discovered that when you get tremendously efficient at answering email, all that happens is that you get much more email.

“There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat,” he said. “That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘Wow,’ and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.”

I recommend you file in bulk and use a full-text search engine to find your mail; use topic filing with folders or tags only if absolutely necessary. I also recommend you turn off e-mail notifications and then check e-mail no more frequently than every two to three hours; avoid getting trapped in e-mail all day.

A 2014 study by the University of British Columbia found that when people checked their email just three times a day (instead of as often as they wanted), they reported remarkably lower stress.