Take Control of E-mail

Today I decided to stop the madness. An email every few minutes and desktop alert + sound to go with it makes it to easy to lose focus on my task at hand and look at my inbox. While I loved this feature when Outlook came out, it's become my achilles heal of productivity. No more.

1. Tools->Options
2. Click E-mail Options...
3. Click Advanced E-mail Options...
4. Uncheck:
   1. Play a Sound
   2. Briefly change the mouse cursor
   3. Show an envelope in the notification area
   4. Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only)

I highly recommend reading The Tyranny of Email. Do email on your time.