How can I disable *some* of my email accounts after work hours?

September 26, 2017 10:35 PM

As a modern human I am the owner of too many email addresses, some of which are personal, some of which are for work (4 separate work ones at present count). I'm getting tired of being beholden to the work ones 24/7 (much like the French). In the spirit of actually clocking off for part of the day, can you recommend a way to disable the just the work ones after XX:XXpm and re-enable them at XX:XXam?

I imagine this is something a lot of people would like to do, but my Googling isn't turning up a satisfactory solution. I use the Gmail app on Android, and the stock email app in Mac OS. The accounts are a mix of Gmail and Exchange. Thanks!

posted by threecheesetrees to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

I've considered setting up a separate account on my Android phone for my work email and task manager, and only logging into that account at work. It also could be used to simultaneously turn off some personal notifications.
posted by lookoutbelow at 10:42 PM on September 26, 2017

I use a different mail app for my work email and personal email on my phone, which makes it very easy to disable notifications from one of them. I don't have an Android at the moment but there are plenty of decent mail apps to choose from.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 10:52 PM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's not automated, but on my iPhone, I just switch from the "All Inboxes" view to the inbox for my personal email account at the end of the day. And I don't (ever) let my work email account badge the app icon with the unread count (I do let my personal email do that). I assume the Android app has similar functionality? On the desktop, I never login to any work email account from my personal computer (I believe this is a very important policy, not just for purposes of tuning out from work at night), so as long as I don't touch my work computer, I don't see my work email on the desktop.
posted by primethyme at 10:55 PM on September 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

The inbox app offers a ton more options for this sort of thing and is officially Google.
posted by k8t at 10:56 PM on September 26, 2017

Best answer: I use an app that works great for this. It's called "Quiet for Gmail" and you can tell it which accounts to disable. I have a gmail account for home and for work, and I just get it to disable the work one between 8pm and 9am.
posted by lollusc at 11:07 PM on September 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

(Also I should note that one of my gmail accounts is just grabbing MS Outlook mails from my work address, so it seems like it should work fine for you too, when you say your email addresses are a mixture of Gmail and Exchange. Alternatively if your Exchange emails are in a different app than gmail, you can just disable notifications from that app between particular times, right?)
posted by lollusc at 11:09 PM on September 26, 2017

On OSX it wouldn't be too hard to put together an AppleScript to disable/enable accounts at certain times. Alternatively, to wisely avoid AppleScript, have a scheduled job (launchd, cron or even iCal&bash) to swap hosts files between your normal one, and one that black-holes the mail servers in question.
posted by pompomtom at 11:09 PM on September 26, 2017

for your phone - install a 'no notifications' app (theres a bunch of different ones) - i got one that blocks anything from emails to whatsapp to news notifications. you can toggle when and what you want off/on. it also makes a consolidated list of the notifications you missed.
posted by speakeasy at 11:14 PM on September 26, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks Lollusc, I've tried out Quiet for Gmail and that does exactly what I want at the Android end of things. Looks like solving it on OSX might be more work...
posted by threecheesetrees at 5:45 PM on September 27, 2017