Cannot plus one this enough. I use to have all email accounts in the one client. Now for work (which is gmail) I use a notifier (plus often just leaving the browser page open in Chromium).
If I find the notifier starting to bug me on the non-work days, I just switch it off. I have a cron job that starts it 9am every work day if it is not already running.
If I find the notifier starting to bug me on the non-work days, I just switch it off. I have a cron job that starts it 9am every work day if it is not already running.