[sbardle]

When I was studying in the early 2000s, email wasn't a problem. I went to check my email at the computer centre on campus twice, maybe three times a day. With smartphones, I probably check my email 40 times a day. It is very distracting, but you have to keep on top of it for work. I'm sure it gets in the way of more meaningful thinking and has ruined my attention span.

[puranjay]

Switch off email notifications

Cut down my stress BIG time

[ChrisLTD]

If your job is to answer email, that seems reasonable. But if you're a programmer, I can't see how you'd need to check your email more than once an hour, or maybe half hour. Otherwise you'll never actually be programming.

[Cthulhu_]

If you're a programmer, your primary task isn't churning out code; at least for me, an important part is to first understand the customer or user's wishes, and second to make sure my colleagues are up to speed and aren't blocked by, for example, missing some knowledge that I possess. Mind you, most of that is done in person, not via e-mail; the Knuth comment (which I'm probably extending to your statement) seems to be about any kind of external influence, including emails, PRs, slack messages, people, or whatever.

That's fine to isolate yourself from that if you define your own problem and solution for it and work alone, but really, how many people do that? That's a thing reserved for idk, university researchers and people with their own projects.

[kwhitefoot]

Once a day should be enough. Anyone who needs you more urgently than that can phone or perhaps even drop by.