From CNNMoney - How I Work by Bill Gates
Bill sez:
Outlook also has a little notification box that comes up in the lower
right whenever a new e-mail comes in. We call it the toast. I'm very
disciplined about ignoring that unless I see that it's a high-priority
topic.
Or I suppose you could just:
- Tools
- Options
- E-mail Options button
- Advanced E-mail Options button
- Display a New Mail Desktop Alert - Uncheck
So... the world's richest man dedicates extra brain cycles to studiously ignore reminders from software created by his own company?!?
I had to suppress the toast within a few months of using Outlook as my official work email client; I was responding to the "toast" like a crack-addicted monkey. I'm only a little better now - I still have to consciously will myself to ignore the little mail envelope in the systray. In fact, I think I'll see if life continues without that reminder for a while.
I do live by my Calendar and the reminder notifications, though. I'm trying to GTD and having a little success - the Calendar is invaluable for that.