How often do you find yourself wandering to your computer to login to your e-mail? Do you walk by the computer, only to stop and check to see if anyone’s written? You’re curious, and it’ll only take a second.

The problem, of course, is that you and I open that e-mail account far too often. E-mail isn’t an urgent form of communication, so why are we willing to drop everything else to use it over and over? Nothing communicated to you by e-mail is a life or death situation. So how do we curb this addiction?

You have to break the pattern:

1. Make a schedule.
Being curious isn’t reason enough to check your e-mail. I’m willing to bet that an easy 30 minutes a day is lost to curiosity, which usually results in a fairly empty inbox. Decide how many times you’ll check your inbox. Be as strict with yourself as you need to be.

Check a specific number of times each day. When you’ve reached your limit, you’re done.
Open your account on a specific schedule like once in the morning, at lunch, and after work.

2. Limit the number of e-mail addresses that you use
Every time you check your mail, you’re spending twice as much time as you check multiple addresses. I used two addresses and cannot check one without checking the other. By combining the two, my wasted curiosity instantly decreased by 50%.

3. Replace e-mail checking with purpose
Remember that every minute matters. E-mail is abused because it’s easy. We all feel a sense of victory after something is achieved; e-mail is the fasted way to cross things off of our list.

It doesn’t always work. Architects and construction companies cannot communicate the fine details of a drawing over e-mails. They’ll be back and forth for hours without achievement. You and I grew up on instant messengers; we know how efficient these programs make our communication. Online chatting has made me a faster typer… but at the cost of how much time? I can still talk on the phone faster than I can type an e-mail.

Do you ever crawl into bed, thinking of all of the things you should have done during the day? Had you not checked that darn e-mail so much, could you have crossed off something on that list?

4. Define that purpose
When you’re away from a computer, do you think of checking your e-mail? No–only when the computer is nearby. Many weekends, I don’t check my e-mail because I simply don’t have access. So far, I have never opened my e-mail program to find something important that required my immediate attention. During the week, I don’t have anything needing immediate attention, yet I keep checking anyway.

When you do have access to the computer, focus on things that matter more in the long run: passive income, net worth… family. It’s easy to keep walking when you have something that is more pressing on your mind.

You don’t check your post office mailbox over and over, so this week, try to reduce the temporary victories you get in checking e-mail.

Yeah, some people will get mad when you don’t respond immediately. Let those people know that urgent communication with you cannot be addressed in this manner. Tell them to do what your mother does–pick up the phone and call you.