From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/66715 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Russ Allbery Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Restricting frequency of 'g' Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:41:23 -0700 Organization: The Eyrie Message-ID: <87prt1ypwc.fsf@windlord.stanford.edu> References: <877ifaxxhz.fsf@windlord.stanford.edu> <87fxtxqlet.fsf@jidanni.org> <86wsn9i2ta.fsf@ankh.home.genehack.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1207626122 20773 80.91.229.12 (8 Apr 2008 03:42:02 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 03:42:02 +0000 (UTC) To: ding@gnus.org Original-X-From: ding-owner+M15198@lists.math.uh.edu Tue Apr 08 05:42:34 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: ding-account@gmane.org Original-Received: from util0.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.18]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1Jj4jB-0005nG-8Z for ding-account@gmane.org; Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:42:33 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.math.uh.edu) by util0.math.uh.edu with smtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1Jj4iF-0003PZ-KM; Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:41:35 -0500 Original-Received: from mx1.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.32]) by util0.math.uh.edu with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1Jj4iE-0003PQ-J4 for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:41:34 -0500 Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.231.51]) by mx1.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from ) id 1Jj4i7-0001qn-Bd for ding@lists.math.uh.edu; Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:41:34 -0500 Original-Received: from smtp1.stanford.edu ([171.67.22.28]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1Jj4iG-0004iD-00 for ; Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:41:37 +0200 Original-Received: from smtp1.stanford.edu (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by localhost (Postfix) with SMTP id 175852D6999 for ; Mon, 7 Apr 2008 20:41:24 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from windlord.stanford.edu (windlord.Stanford.EDU [171.64.19.147]) by smtp1.stanford.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id D61952D6B20 for ; Mon, 7 Apr 2008 20:41:23 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by windlord.stanford.edu (Postfix, from userid 1000) id D2039E791C; Mon, 7 Apr 2008 20:41:23 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <86wsn9i2ta.fsf@ankh.home.genehack.org> (John SJ Anderson's message of "Mon\, 07 Apr 2008 20\:54\:25 -0400") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1 (gnu/linux) X-Spam-Score: -2.6 (--) List-ID: Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:66715 Archived-At: John SJ Anderson 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)