Checking E-mail can be a big distraction when I'm involved in a task and just want to send an email and move on. Sometimes if I have new e-mail, I just don't even want to know.

Sure, I could close my eyes while the Inbox opens and I press "Control-N" for the new message window, but I've found a method for opening just the "Compose Message" window without first opening the Inbox.

I tested this with Thunderbird on Linux, but I suspect that at least the Mac can suppor something like this as well.

The "trick" is open the program as if an email address had been clicked on a web page. Many e-mail programs support this kind of integration. With Thunderbird, the following can be entered in the "Run Box" on Linux, usually invoked with "Alt-F2"

mozilla-thunderbird 'mailto:'

That directly opens the "Compose New Message" window, without loading the rest of the application.

My eyes have been opened to new productivity.