Inbox When Ready

Inbox When Ready offers a few simple features to help you enforce this discipline. First, you can hide or reveal the inbox on demand with the toggle button. Second, you can set an auto-hide timer for example, you might allow yourself to check email, but after 10 minutes the inbox will hide itself again, nudging you back to work. Third, it lets you define an “inbox lockout schedule.” This is a timetable of hours when the inbox stays locked (e.g. you might lock it out every day before 11am to keep your mornings free for deep work). During those hours, clicking “Show Inbox” simply won’t do anything, removing the temptation entirely. Finally, you can establish an inbox budget a limit on how many times (or how long) you want to check email per day. The extension will track your inbox opens and time spent, giving you gentle feedback against your target. All of these features are configurable in a minimalist options menu. Notably, if you use Gmail’s category tabs (Promotions, Social, etc.), the Pro edition can hide those unread counts as well, ensuring nothing red or bold on the screen beckons your attention.

Tips for deep work success

Using Inbox When Ready effectively requires pairing the tool with smart habits. Here are some tactical tips for getting the most out of it:

Schedule your email time: Decide in advance when you’ll process emails. For instance, you might unblock your inbox at 12pm and 4pm each day. Treat these like meetings with your inbox. Outside those windows, commit to not peek. This batching approach aligns with productivity best practices and prevents the “constant checking” syndrome. You’ll likely find that most emails can wait a few hours and that batching actually lets you reply more efficiently in one go.

Use the lockout for power hours: Identify your peak focus periods (your “prime time” as some call it) and configure the scheduled lockout to cover those. For example, if mid-morning is when you do your best creative work, schedule the inbox to stay hidden until lunchtime. This creates a daily routine where you start with deep work and only later switch to reactive tasks like email. Some users even report feeling less stressed knowing they won’t see email first thing in the morning.

Create an urgent channel: One common concern is missing something truly urgent. The workaround is to set up Gmail filters (or use Priority Inbox features) to flag important messages. For example, you could apply a label “Urgent” to emails from key clients or your boss, and configure your phone’s Gmail app to notify you only for those. That way, Inbox When Ready can hide your general inbox, but you won’t miss critical alerts your phone can still ping if an email hits the “Urgent” label. The extension’s creator suggests this method and is even testing an “inbox whitelist” feature to allow certain emails through. In practice, this means you get the best of both worlds: 99% of messages stay out of sight until you’re ready, but the truly time-sensitive 1% find you through a controlled channel.

Mind your other devices: If you keep Gmail open on a second monitor or get constant notifications on your phone, those can undermine the benefit of Inbox When Ready. Consider turning off email badges on your phone or closing Gmail on other screens when you’re in a focus session. The goal is an environment where your attention doesn’t dart to new emails every few minutes. It may feel unusual at first, but it trains you and your colleagues to respect more asynchronous communication.