Hey—It’s Toffer.
I check my email once a day. 4:30pm.
Estimated read time: 1 minute
People think this takes discipline. It doesn’t. It takes one decision that makes all future decisions unnecessary.
The reason you check constantly isn’t urgency. It’s that you haven’t closed the loop on when you’ll check. Your brain keeps that loop open, burning cycles in the background. The checking is just your nervous system trying to resolve the uncertainty.
Decide when. Trust it. The loop closes.
Most of what feels urgent is just other people’s lack of planning becoming your emergency. If it’s actually urgent, they’ll call. Nobody calls.
The difference between hard work and busy work: Hard work is deep. Boring. Sustainable. You do it, you stop, you do it again tomorrow. Busy work is fast. Stimulating. Exhausting. You do it all day and have nothing to show for it except the feeling that you worked hard.
Constant availability is a tax on your attention that compounds against you. Every interruption isn’t just lost time—it’s destroyed depth. And depth is where actual work happens.
4:30 isn’t special. It’s just the line. You need a line. Without one, you’re not working—you’re responding. And responding is the lowest leverage thing you can do with your time.
Your Friend in Time,
Toffer
P.S. I chose 4:30pm because the person who really wanted your response is relieved you exist, but they also won’t respond immediately because it’s end of day. Most people just email to pass the ball anyway. They’re hoping you’ll take your time returning it.