Re: Restricting frequency of 'g'

[Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>]

John SJ Anderson <genehack@genehack.org> writes:
> jidanni@jidanni.org writes:

>> Your time-limited and cron-job-style assisted approaches are
>> artificial.
>
>   Yes, but at least for me, the issue isn't that fetching mail takes a
>   long time -- the issue is that I do it far too frequently (the "rat
>   hitting the button to see if a crack pellet comes out" phenomenon). 

Exactly.  The problem that I'm solving is not a software problem.  It's a
brain crutch.  This particular limitation was inspired by reading about
Inbox Zero and realizing the degree to which I constantly check my e-mail,
have great difficulty not immediately processing mail as soon as I see it,
and have great difficulty not replying to mail as soon as I've processed
it, all of which distracts me from getting done the things I actually need
to work on.

>   By setting things up so that I get reminded that I already checked
>   email less than $INTERVAL $UNITS ago, I'm hoping that I can break
>   myself of this foul habit, and get some Real Work done, instead of
>   checking for new shiny distractions coming down the mail pipe.

It's remarkable how well this has worked after only one day.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>