
No Email - kloncks
http://blog.harjtaggar.com/time
======
arohner
One thing I would really love in an email client is a strong separation
between reading and writing email. During productive hours when I'm sitting at
my desk, I would really like to be able to 1) open GMail, 2) read old email 3)
Write new email.

I absolutely do not want the ability to read new email during that time. In
fact, I would really like to set up GMail so email only arrives on a fixed
schedule, say 2-4 times a day.

~~~
tt
Sounds good, but it will introduce new problems: 1) someone called and said "I
sent you that urgent email; didn't you get it?!?" and you had forgotten about
the rules you set up for email receipt. 2) Services that send email
notifications now have to add another reminder so people may have to check
their email rules in addition to the Spam folder in case mail is "lost" there.

~~~
btilly
The fact that someone else thinks an email is urgent does not mean that I'll
think it is.

And if it really is urgent, they can call me. Unless you're the kind of person
who both sends an email and then immediately calls me about it. If you're that
kind of person you quickly will be informed of how much I dislike that. If you
persist, I'll take advantage of my freedom as a contractor to choose my own
projects, and you'll soon not be a person that has any reason to interact with
me.

~~~
greyman
But they might want to send you some attachments or URLs, while not knowing
other techniques to pass them to you.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
If it's urgent you should still call first to confirm that the person is
available and able to deal with what you need them to deal with and that what
you're sending them is what they need.

Anything else risks wasting a bunch of people's time going back and forth
which if it's _genuinely_ urgent (it usually isn't) everyone should want to
avoid.

~~~
Domenic_S
If someone's likely to call you to follow up on an "important" email that
isn't important, turning off email doesn't help. You'll still get a
vibrate/ring, look down at your phone, and decide whether or not to pick it up
-- exactly the kind of distraction we're trying to avoid here.

The problem with the call-me-with-only-urgent-stuff approach is the Boy Who
Cried Wolf problem: if people are constantly calling you (because they know
they're not going to get a reply until later in the day, and they need it
<whine> _noowwwwwwwww_ </whine>, you'll put your phone on DND/silent. But now
you can't respond to _actual_ emergencies.

Maybe we should go back to pagers...

~~~
gcr
In the first case, you must take action to appease them, whether replying to
the email or taking their call. (Or you could script your interaction with
them; an automatic email reply or such. But that's suboptimal too). It's
outside of your control.

In the second case, they aren't able to distinguish what they consider to be
emergencies from what are actual emergencies; this, too, is out of your
control.

I honestly don't know how to deal with these. Thoughts?

~~~
btilly
My solution is as I described. I make it clear that I am unhappy. I make it
clear why. And if they refuse to listen, I arrange my work so that they have
no excuse for trying to ruin my day.

This is not a feasible solution for everyone.

------
evaneykelen
For those who want to experiment with a (free) iPhone email app which does
_not_ allow you to write, reply or forward emails can take a look at Pigeonal.
(disclaimer: I'm one of the developers).

The app scans your inbox(es) for ~200 domain names from services such as
Github, Basecamp etc and groups all emails in boxes (pigeonholes), depicted by
the service's icon.

You can tap each pigeonhole, scan the subjects and decide to 'archive all' or
tap individual emails and mark them for 'follow up'.

That's all you can do. I'm personally not much distracted by reading emails,
it's the writing part which pulls me out of my concentration and Pigeonal just
about offers enough functionality to create follow-up tasks. Moreover, since
the app only shows emails from a small list of domains the number of emails I
have to process is relatively low.

The app is an experiment, your mileage may vary. We've developed it to see
whether there is an alternative to the email inbox archetype. So far it's
working for us, but it's far from perfect and I'm not as brave as the OP to
completely ditch email from my iPhone.

~~~
wamatt
Hmm that sounds interesting, kinda what Notifo's usecase was meant to be
(before they abandoned it).

I currently use SaneBox, to keep my inbox under control, and has been
exceptionally well. Would it be compatible with Pigeonal?

~~~
evaneykelen
Currently we don't support generic IMAP accounts (only Gmail and iCloud).
We're planning to add this in the next release (with the caveat that it might
not work with all IMAP servers). I've not used SaneBox myself yet, looks
interesting though.

------
elliottcarlson
I have never bothered upgrading to a 'smart' phone - I am happy with my flip
phone that is great at making calls and texting. I don't need games, I don't
need email access and I don't need the poor battery life a lot of those phones
suffer from. I charge my phone once every 3 or 4 days and I am happy.

Should the need arise, I generally carry my netbook with me everywhere I go -
and it only comes out if there is an emergency. At least then I have internet
access and all the tools to actually make a difference as opposed to just
being able to respond to an email. If it isn't an emergency, then it can wait.

~~~
cageface
I find myself in the strange position of doing mobile apps for a living but
not really using my own smartphone much. The main thing that would keep me
from going back to a flip phone is that texting on a phone keyboard is just
too painful.

I also find the maps application pretty useful sometimes, but I have
uninstalled a bunch of other distracting time wasters from the phone.

~~~
nedwin
I was running an agency up until recently which did mobile apps. Always an
interesting conversation walking into a new client meeting with my "burner"
Nokia 1610 and explaining that I knew what I was talking about but had made a
conscious decision to disconnect.

------
disbelief
I'm sure it's quite liberating to cut back severely on email, and I don't
doubt the increased productivity it brings while trying to code or do other
high-concentration tasks, but my one problem with this system is:

> If I happen to be away from my computer for a few hours it’s likely someone
> else will see the email and reply. If it’s something truly urgent that only
> I can help with, the other partners have my cell number and can call/text
> me.

It sounds like you've simply offloaded your compulsive email checking to other
people. This system wouldn't work if everyone else at YC also stopped checking
their email regularly, because then the urgent things wouldn't be caught in
time and you wouldn't be pinged on your cell.

~~~
e12e
Maybe, the article isn't really explicit. I read it as: When I'm at the
computer, I will see new emails as they come in. If I'm not, then probably
someone else (of our large group) will be at their computer, and see the email
as it comes in.

Of course, the sane alternative is just to set up a roster for checking email
(say split the day into 2,3 or 4 hour watches -- and just share them around in
a way that makes sense. Then everyone would be free to concentrate on other
stuff outside their "email watch".

Whether that makes sense or not would be highly dependent on the internal
structure of the organization and the internal business processes, of course.

The next natural step is to manage such group emails with a bug tracker or
equivalent, so that when someone takes responsibility for an email, it is
obvious to everyone else that the email is being taken care of. This avoid two
people doing the same work.

I suppose an imap shared folder could be used for this (move mail before you
read/answer it) -- but I've never used imap shared folders, so I'm not sure if
that would work (well).

------
jcr
Congratulations Harj on breaking a harmful habit. Keep Going!

You did it by intent, while I only did it by circumstance. As such, we've
probably learned different lessons from the experience.

For me it was my health. Those little things like walking and typing are often
taken for granted until you can no longer do them. Not feeling well enough to
accept invitations to go have fun with friends can wear on you. The same is
true for not feeling well enough to answer emails or phone calls.

Could you leave your voicemail full for six months so no one else can leave
messages?

With your YC involvement, probably not, but I had to do it, and it taught me a
lot about interaction and contribution. Interacting with others is a choice.
Similarly, making a contribution of your time and effort is also a choice.
When you know you'll be in more pain after typing an email, or driving to see
friends, your perspective changes since you finally realize there will be
consequences, or better said, there's always a cost to the choice of
interacting and contributing.

Making a conscious decision on your own needs and opinions of whether or not
interacting is worthwhile is far better than merely reacting out of impulsive
habits and social pressures to be polite. When you know it will cost you
something and you still feel it's worthwhile, then you are consciously
investing your time rather than mindlessly spending it.

I know I've posted this before, but...

Treebeard: "You must understand, young Hobbit, it takes a long time to say
anything in Old Entish. And we never say anything unless it is worth taking a
long time to say." -- J.R.R. Tolkien

------
npguy
You need to classify this based on what type of work you do. For a developer,
checking email would knock him off the zone. For a different job, one email
answered late would mean a lost business for example. (the OP is a YC partner)

~~~
alwaysinshade
Very true. An algorithm that prioritises email threads based on dates
mentioned (including keywords & phrases like "tomorrow", "after lunch") as
well as tone ("No problem!" vs "Guys this is really dragging on!") would be a
cool project to work on.

I made a simple "word monitor" for my emails that can make assumptions about
gender, social status etc based on words that are considered 1st person
singular, 1st person plural, articles, emotion, cognitive, and social. Works
ok but really needs a lengthy email to make heads or tails of any hidden
information/agendas embodied within.

------
klearvue
Here is my system of not wasting too much time on e-mail: I only have one
client application set up to access my various accounts - Zimbra Desktop,
which I don't have any entries for in the OS menu, and I don't know any
passwords myself as they are randomly generated and stored in KeyPassX.

Every day a cronjob starts up the client at 4pm, which starts minimized (thank
you, KDE), proceeds to fetch new mail, apply various filters (e.g. CCs marked
read and archived), and maximizes the window 2 minutes later.

Half an hour later another cronjob does a 'killall' on it - that way if I
wasn't at my desk at 4, I wouldn't have to come back to be greeted by
unanswered e-mails.

And, as the article says, there is always a mobile phone for anything truly
urgent.

~~~
e12e
That is about the craziest idea for handling mail I've heard in a while. I'm
not sure if I like it or hate it -- it certainly is a bit sad that
(presumably) handling of mail is so slow you need to give the client 2 minutes
to sort things out.

What happens if you're writing a reply at 16:32? Do you start over the next
day?

~~~
hollerith
I am guessing that if there is already a Zimbra Desktop process, the 16:30 job
has no effect.

And I am guessing that if the process's main window is already maximized, the
16:32 job has no effect.

------
atirip
Why such a hatred, not in this piece, but trending, against e-mail? It doesnt
bother me much. What i did instead, i dropped my phone, figuratively speaking
of course. A month ago i switched, lastly, my phone off. What a relief, no
more calls, no more call when i'm busy, no more missed calls and whats more
important, no questions about why you didnt answer, called back, etc. I'm
free!

~~~
jvdh
Why such hatred against phone calls?

~~~
atirip
They violently interrupt what I'm doing at the very moment.

~~~
pooriaazimi
Don't answer them when they're interrupting or you don't feel like it (that's
what I do). But, sometimes, people have genuine reasons to want to disturb you
(something very important, or in emergency). That's I finally bought an iPhone
instead of iPod touch and am much happier now.

~~~
klibertp
> Don't answer them when they're interrupting or you don't feel like it

And then come up with excuse after excuse why you didn't answer. I got tired
of it and got a phone that works... almost. It does allow me to read and send
texts and to hear what the person on the other end is speaking when I pick up
a call. But the microphone is broken and there is no way for me to give them
an answer, which causes them to call really rarely if at all. And if they ask
I can truthfully say that, well, my phone is broken, sorry... I'll call you
from home or from office, or wherever, but generally later, when I feel like
it.

------
navs
I've done something similar. I disabled Safari on my iPhone. I've also set
forwards on important mail to my icloud account which has push on the iPhone.
This way if I do receive an important email, I'll answer or call immediately.
Freeing myself of apps and Safari has made me more productive but now I wonder
why I even need a Smartphone. The only apps I use now are Notes, Mail, Maps
and the Music player. I'll admit one part of the reason why I removed all
these apps is depression. Productivity is not my primary reason, but it has
had a great benefit.

~~~
ZoFreX
If you don't mind me asking, in what way did removing the apps help with
depression?

~~~
navs
I found myself wasting time watching youtube videos and playing games on my
phone while in bed. I did this for a while, rarely leaving my room. I hoped to
force myself out of bed by firstly removing these distractions. After that, it
was a matter of willpower, I suppose. Not having something to fiddle with
while in bed helped me get out. That's just one example. To explain further is
rather difficult.

------
Tyrannosaurs
My technique for this is:

1) Separation of work and personal e-mail into two accounts (which is good for
a whole number of reasons).

2) Work e-mail is configured on my phone but disabled. It means that if I have
to access it it's relatively painless but there's no notifications and not
even any ability to manually check without re-enabling it (which is a mental
barrier which I know I shouldn't be crossing - like the HN noprocrast thing -
you can override it easily but you know you shouldn't so you don't).

3) Personal e-mail isn't set to notify in any way except through the badge (I
find personal e-mail is rarely urgent enough for me to feel any strong
compulsion).

I find that the barriers you have to put up are actually very small, just
enough to stop the habitual, quick checking. As soon as it takes more than a
second or two to do, you stop doing it pretty quickly.

Now if only I could find similarly successful mechanisms for Twitter, RSS and
the news.

------
stevenj
I switched to only using a basic cell phone (one that only does calls and
texting) at the beginning of the year and have thoroughly enjoyed it.

~~~
evoxed
I haven't owned a cellphone for four years. I love it.

------
HorizonXP
Right now I have an iPhone 4, a Galaxy Nexus, and a BlackBery Bold 9900 in
front of me. I do dev work, so I flip between devices fairly regularly.

My Bold is still my daily device. Sure, the other two phones are better in
almost all ways, but e-mail and unified messaging is one thing RIM knows how
to do. At a quick glance, I can see incoming e-mails, SMS, twitter or
Facebook, and know if I need to respond. I can set up different audible alerts
for each and/or different coloured LEDs.

I rarely have my desktop e-mail client open, since my BlackBerry helps me
filter out messages as needed while I work.

You can rally against me if you like, but I like my BlackBerry better than my
other devices. It simply works for me. And I think this aversion to
e-mail/distractions is a by-product of the devices being used.

~~~
hollerith
Intriguing.

Could someone unwilling to pay for a wireless data plan but willing to pay for
a BlackBerry Bold 9900 benefit from this unified messaging you speak of?

I ask because the Bold _does_ have Wifi.

To benefit from this unified messaging, it looks like I would need access to
BlackBerry's servers. Is it even possible to get access or buy this access
without buying a wireless data plan?

------
smalter
At iDoneThis, we have several shared email inboxes (Helpscout is fantastic for
this: <http://helpscout.net>). What ends up happening is that most of our
emails are processed out of shared inboxes, which makes it easier to respond
in batch (as Harj points out) while still showing responsiveness (because
people batch at different times). We end up hardly using our personal company
email addresses.

------
mhd
So "no email" means "no email on my smartphone". And didn't we have this
discussion years ago, when Tim Ferriss hawked it to us as a groundbreaking,
zen-like idea?

And no, I do own a smartphone, I just have to be very bored (or anticipating
something, preferably romantic) to be checking email with it. The constant
blackberry-like push email thing always seemed a bit odd to me (and I _do_
have a biff running on my desktops), especially when it's exacerbated by a
whole boatload of additional bleeps and bloops (twitter mentions, SMS,
whatsapp, etc.). Recently I didn't have access to my iPhone for two weeks
(left it in a friend's car) and "had to cope" with my old 6310i. I did feel a
bit liberated, but mostly because it freed me from charging that device all
the time…

Is it my "forever alone" nature and everyone else is getting that many
apparently immediately actionable emails all the time? Or is it an age thing,
as I'm not quite old enough for constant SMS-ing at a formative age, but do
remember FIDOnet/UUCP access to news/email in once-daily batched form?

------
pwf
I want to see a blog post about someone who decides to stop reading blog posts
about people who stop reading their email/twitter/facebook.

------
morgen
There have been quite a few posts recently with dramatic tales of breaking the
email habit and trying to drop/cut back on email. No doubt email has been
something that we struggle (and usually fail) to control. So we are left with
dramatic measures, like "no email" or support cheats - like getting other
people to do it for us.

Perhaps these mostly behavioral based solutions feel good (they make us feel
as if we taking back control) but are they really the we can do at solving the
problem of out of control email? Or are we just shifting the problem into text
messages & calls or onto other people?

I'm working with a team now on re-architecting email to give us control over
our email. We've started on a related but simpler problem - when I give a
website my email I give them control. You can check it out at
<https://leemail.me>

Soon we will be expanding this control to all email communications. If this
sounds interesting, get in touch.

-Lee

~~~
ericd
I think that the main fundamental issue is that email makes it too easy to
copy lots of people on a message, so you get lots of cross chatter (happens in
companies in email and overly inclusive meetings). The other fundamental issue
for some people is that a lot more people want to talk to them than they want
to reach out to, so they get swamped (similar to the EB White letter about how
many letters he and other authors receive, making it hard to actually write
new things). I'm not sure these can be solved well with technology.

------
ljoshua
Great real-world anecdote, it's really refreshing to see busy people (I'm
assuming Harj is a pretty busy person) understanding the implications of email
overload and trying to deal with it.

Not everyone needs to completely remove email from their phones, but doing
simple things like turning off push notifications and trying to push one's
self to only check at certain intervals has been shown by research (and
substantiated by experiences like this) to have huge upsides to productivity,
lower stress levels, and creativity.

I'm learning a huge amount in this arena, it's a fascinating topic. If anyone
wants to see a very cursory summary of what I've assembled so far, check out a
small deck at <http://www.slideshare.net/jlyman/email-overload-13506201>

------
dools
Getting a device with proper push email would have solved the issue of having
to check email all the time. Having email on my phone with good gmail push
notifications is the most liberating thing I've ever done, but that may be
because of the type of work I have to do day to day.

------
elsurudo
Yup, email is a distracting compulsion. And make no mistake, it is just that.

For my sanity, I have email notifications turned off on my phone, so I only
get new messages when I explicitly open the app (which I still find I do much
too often). Definitely helps.

------
logn
Author raises a lot of good points. And given how tied we are to technology
it's really good there's continual interest in us evaluating it in our lives
and how we feel about it.

The pendulum seems to have shifted in recent times and I think we're all going
through something analogous to the drinkers/smokers in the 60's/70's. Those
were feel-good times of indulgence and merriness. We realized the consequences
though and learned moderation as a society. I have a feeling we're about 10-20
years from coming to terms with a healthy technology lifestyle.

------
emmett
I am inspired. I just did the same as an experiment. We'll see how it goes...

------
Kiro
I want the opposite. I want to be totally absorbed in technology and can't
wait until Google Glasses are released.

~~~
traxtech
Let me introduce you Borgs, big friends of mine

------
0ren
This reminds me of a nice local quote regarding the conflict of getting stuff
done vs. the acceleration of tech addictions to Facebook, WoW, etc.

 _We'll increasingly be defined by what we say no to_ [0]

[0] <http://paulgraham.com/addiction.html>

------
saiko-chriskun
Not sure I follow. I don't take time off to "check" my email. When I get an
email, I get a notification. I open it up, respond, and get back to what I was
doing. Where's the time lost in this?

~~~
ljoshua
You will lose up to 24 minutes of full productivity, according to several
different pieces of research. For example: "A study by Microsoft researchers
tracking the email habits of co-workers found that once their work had been
interrupted by an email notification, people took, on average, 24 minutes to
return to the suspended task" [1].

The issue is the cognitive load introduced by task switching. You may not
realize it on the surface, but breaking away each time to write a reply (or
even to a lesser extent just the mere fact that you are now notified there's a
message waiting) is causing a huge distraction for your brain, and slowing
down your "real" work.

[1] Paul Hemp. 2009. "Death by information overload," Harvard Business Review
87(9).

~~~
astrodust
A good five minutes is "Where was I?"

If you get interrupted a lot it helps to take notes on a pad, kind of use it
as your "stack" and just list out what you're doing so when you're done you
can go back to that frame of mind more easily.

------
Linford0
I think separating reading from writing email is a good thing. Emails you have
received typically represent other people's agendas - those you write
(especially if written from scratch not just a reply) represent your own
agenda.

I would like a client that allows me to read in a browsey (flipboard?) way -
no replies or forwarding allowed.

Separately I want the client to semi-automatically create emails from my to-do
list - I get to edit and send.

This way I am able to understand what other's want me to know but I remain
productive by focussing on my own agenda.

------
rdl
Once you delete fb, twitter, mail, quora, etc. from your phone, why not just
carry an e-ink Kindle or a paper notebook/calendar and some kind of music
player?

~~~
gurkendoktor
Anecdotally: OmniFocus, dictionaries, pzizz, Skype, all-in-one banking app, a
decent camera. My iPad or an iPod touch would have all of those, but then I'd
have to carry two devices (I'd need a dumbphone for occasional calls). No data
plan, no notifications at all (except for some slow-moving badges), and I
still love my iPhone.

------
rjzzleep
look up inbox zero and use mutt. i did try mail act-on for apple mail. but
again you can always run mutt on a shell somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

A lot of the problems discussed in the article and the thread here were solved
many many years ago.

But yes, as a friend of mine put it: "The interesting thing about email is
that it gives us the impression that we're actually working, while we really
are not."

~~~
chimeracoder
Mutt is _perfect_. No distractions, and full functionality[1]. I don't have to
open up a web browser to answer my email. What's more, I can press a single
keybinding that brings up my entire inbox _instantaneously_ (no waiting for
the browser to open, web interface to load, etc). You'd think those extra five
seconds don't make a difference, but it really improves your workflow when you
don't have to keep your inbox sitting open in another window all day, and even
turn off notifications.

Now, I can keep email at an arm's distance, so it doesn't bother me when I
need to do anything, but still at my fingertips, so I can access it quickly,
spend as little time as possible taking care of what I need to do, and then
closing it and forgetting about it.

[1] Gmail's implemenation of IMAP, on the other hand, is horribly, _horribly_
broken, but it's possible to get it to work with mutt regardless.

------
aacook
This has been the most useful post for me all month. Man, I need to stop
checking reddit, email, twitter, and HN. See you in a month!

~~~
alexfoo
Leechblock got me out of the habit of spending too much time reading various
blogs/sites. I set it to block a certain set of sites between 10-12,13-17
hours.

It's trivial to work around if you want to, but having the "blocked" page pop
up is a good reminder that I didn't want to be wasting my time and should get
back to work.

------
scdoshi
Just did the same myself. Had been mulling it over for a while, but this
pushed me over the edge. Let's see how it goes

------
tijsvrolix
We're building a service that will allow you to schedule a number of "email
moments" a day: incoming messages are temporarily queued until those moments
and the sender is notified when you're checking your mail next time. We're
looking for test users at <http://kukoo.com>

------
shocks
My phone goes into email notification silent mode after 6pm and back on again
at 9am. Works great for me.

~~~
organico
How do you achieve this - ie. what kind of phone/software?

~~~
shocks
I'm using K9 on Android. There is a quiet time option which disables
notifications. :)

Hope this helps!

------
ovatsug25
Deactivate push messages from your phone mail app and only allow for manual
checking. I did that. And now I have to wait to read email which is usually
enough time to drop the crack.

It might not work if the internet is way fast like it is in the US. I am in
the DR which might make a difference...

------
robryan
Would be good to setup a system where you are able to get people to label
something as urgent and you would still get this otherwise you would see it
when you wanted. Depending on who is sending the majority of email your way
and your social relationships this could work well.

~~~
danbee
The danger is that once everyone knows this they will all mark their emails as
urgent.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
You'd also need a system where you could blacklist people who abused it so
nothing they set to urgent was treated as such.

Harsh but the boy who cried wolf and all.

------
debacle
On the other side of the coin, I've noticed that email is the new voicemail -
people expect emails to be replied to in a window of hours, not days. People
are incredulous when I show them my phone (no Android or iOS, sorry) and ask
"How do you get any work done?"

------
mcdowall
Thankfully I have managed to reject the requests from upper management to set
me up with a Blackberry at various positions.

It pains me to see friends receiving emails on their BB whilst at the pub
after work and fretting over the email they've just been 'pushed'.

------
dsirijus
I think a completely converse strategy works too - I'm getting notifications
for everything on my iOS devices, Android devices, several PCs etc.

I just ignore them all now; pretty similar to ads on web. And I have them
available everywhere if I actually need them.

------
graeme
Thanks for posting this Hart. You inspired me to simplify my iPhone apps. I
removed my personal and work email apps, and a lot of other clutter.

Going well so far. It's so much more productive to only do email on a desktop,
and it definitely frees up my thoughts.

------
numlocked
Another issue with email on the phone is that I find myself replying to emails
out of habit, in many cases to emails which require some thought in the
response and half-ass te response because I'm on a smartphone and don't have a
real keyboard.

------
Linford0
Receiving an email = a small but significant affirmation of one's self worth.

That's the problem.

------
dm8
Some of my friends follow, "no email checking" hour everyday at their work for
focus. It's working really well for them and I'm thinking of giving it a shot
too.

------
marcrosoft
I have been doing this for a year now, it is great. For maximum productivity
only check your email once/twice a day and never on weekends. :)

------
benjlang
Sidepoint: Svbtle is taking over.

------
georgeecollins
I started reading this and midway through I thought, "I better check my
email.:

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monsterix
Very interesting write up Harj. I too deleted my Gmail sometime back but my
motivation was different: I want to build an app with which I could write to
anyone on email but vice-versa was not true.

Well it kind of started that way and after a few months of agony (unable to
connect smoothly) and joy (better concentration) I am now with something
interesting that you should see: <http://bubbleideas.com>

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hnriot
isn't it kind of arrogant to think that people would want to read what you
have to say, but not the other way around?

There's already an app to do that, it's called SMTP, just don't use POP. After
a few weeks you'll be so unpopular with your friends that you wont even need
to switch off POP.

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monsterix
Yes you are right, but that is how I started on the problem of mail noise. I
have come some distance since and have implemented a sort of 100% spam-less
model where people can write to me once they are within my solicited network.
We use quality of the connections (strange-ti-vity or closeness) to block or
allow to & fro of private mails.

Strangers and people outside my network can also approach me somewhat, but
they cannot not send me direct mails until I am hooked to them somehow - which
is, like 'to be in the solicited network'. It is something like Twitter's DM &
Tweet model except here we write mails instead of tweets.

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hk_kh
Hey, first world problems!

In my head I try to keep it as "If it is an email, it can wait until
tomorrow".

The author un-synced his email from the phone? Big deal. It is not that
smartphones do not let you think (which is also true), but that they are just
yet another consumer good made to keep you disconnected from reality.

As usual, it just depends how you use them. Think of it as a laptop, do you
program on it or just surf facebook?

Smartphones could be the ultimate hacker device, if used properly.

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paranoiacblack
Here's my custom solution to cutting down on email: self-control.

