I am declaring a vacation from my email. Since I can’t quite get to #noemail yet, I think this is the next best thing. Let me explain.

First, I need to say thanks to Tom Cochran. He used to run digital technology for Whitehouse.gov and I got to meet him at Drupalcon Denver last year. Tom shared a link to an HBR article on Twitter and I luckily saw it go by on my stream. I read the post “Coping with Email Overload” by Peter Bregman over the holidays and started thinking about how this method might work for me.

“Instead of checking email continuously and from multiple devices, schedule specific email time during the day while you are at your computer. All other time is email vacation time.”

As I pondered the concept of checking email at certain intervals during the day, I realized that I already do this for my home email. I used to check my home email all the time, twice in the morning before work, I’d have a tab open up in my browser at work, and then several times in the evening. Over the last few months, I started checking my home email, at most, twice a day. In fact, sometimes, I’ll only check it at night. Why didn’t I apply this method to my work email?

I agree with Bregman. “We are most efficient when we answer email in bulk at our computers.” And I’ve been practicing this for the last few years without recognizing what Bregman outlines in his post. Any time after vacation, traveling, or a long weekend, I would block off a few hours the morning of my return to knock out email. Then I would return to my old habits of checking the constant flow of messages.

Good-bye bombardment! 2013 is going to be different. Well, at least I’m going to try this experiment for the next two weeks. I’m going to try a hybrid version of what Bregman describes. I’ll check my inbox and go through my filtered email three to four times a day. In the morning, mid-morning, after lunch, and late afternoon. I do not want to do set times, yet—but I may have to eventually consider that option.

The major reason I am trying a hybrid version is that I can’t close my email client (Thunderbird) during the day. I think that would be more inefficient; waiting for it to open, typing in my password, waiting for messages to load. Why? I have too much information stored away in my email like snippets of information, attachments, or things I need to work on.

Today was the first day that I tried taking email vacations. I was mostly successful. I was able to turn off the urge to check my inbox. I let the emails pile up in my inbox and waited for the next “scheduled” bulk time. Otherwise, I was able to draw a line in my inbox for things I was working on and tried to stay in other folders where I was working. New messages remained unread.

So far so good. I felt more productive and efficient. Let’s see how this experiment goes and if this can become a good habit for 2013.