I’m a self-admitted emailaholic. But something strange has happened recently. I turned off my email.

Thunderbird doesn’t seem to like it when I switch from the wired network to the wireless network, so I end up having to quit and restart it. The thing is that sometimes I forget to start it back up again. This has turned out to be a boon for my productivity.

I just can’t help going to see what’s new in my email if I see Thunderbird down there in my taskbar or the mail icon in my tray. I just have to see what’s new. I literally get thousands of emails per day, many of them from mailing lists and automated alerts, so I can easily be constantly alerted to new mail. But if Thunderbird isn’t running and I’m not getting any notifications, I forget. The result is that I get long periods of actual work done – amazing!

What’s also nice is that when I do check it, I can power through a bunch of mail, shut if off again and go back to my work, interruption-free.

It’s a brave new world. Maybe I’ll kill messenger next. Then I’ll move to a cave.