Unexpected Calm

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I bought a new (shorter) domain for my new email address. One advantage of migrating away from gmail that I hadn’t anticipated is how much calmer I feel.

You see, Gmail technically supports IMAP, but it’s more of a shim. You’re not really supposed to use IMAP with Gmail. And as such I never felt comfortable using a regular email client, instead opting to check mail via the web-app.

Checking mail via a browser is fine but being in a browser switches your mind to a different context. Browsers are meant for consuming. The entire internet is just a simple cmd-T away. So “checking email” became a mental excuse to open my web browser. And then Twitter. And then Hacker News. And then Reddit. Oh, I wonder if I got any new email? And repeat.

Now with a provider where IMAP is a first class citizen, I can use Mail.app again. Mail is set to be pulled in once an hour. No more temptation from a web browser. And an unexpected sense of calm.

I’m back in control.