If you implement a setup where your email reader is decoupled from the program that fetches emails, this is trivial to do.

Personally, I use mutt + mbsync. I have bound key 0 to call mbsync from mutt. I try to check email only twice per day [1].

I'm in the process of switching to gnus + mbsync. This has the additional advantage of gnus being close to a news reader, which is optimized for an inbox-zero way of reading.

Since my email often carries stressful news, I love having my inbox "paused". I pull emails. They are not pushed to me. Way saner.

[1] http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_personal_productivity.html