There was a time when long-distance messages arrived once (or twice) a day, delivered by a real person, to a real mailbox.
Then came the telephone.
Then the fax machine.
Then voicemail.
Then email.
Then texting.
Then instant messaging.
Then blogs.
Then RSS feeds.
Which is all well and good, but the plethora of conduits by which people can contact you (and by which you contact other people), can become a powerful procrastination tool (especially when there are things you need to get done, but really don't want to do!).
There are no hard-and-fast rules for how to deal with this. I need to check my email frequently during work hours, not so frequently at home. RSS feeds are things I browse during coffee breaks. If I find myself checking them every half-hour of a weekend, I know it's time to give myself a talking to!
There is a good chance that you already know whether you are exhibiting 'obsessive-compulsive' tendencies in this area... but as a guideline, if you are spending more time checking whether you have a text/ voicemail/ email than you spend reading them, you could probably scale the frequency down a notch!
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