Ask HN: How to avoid inbox distraction when searching for an archived email?

I noticed the following pattern of email distraction happens to me regularly. I'll be working on or thinking about something. I think of a specific archived email I need to search for to get some information related to what I'm working on or thinking about. So I go to GMail. But as soon as I log in, I get distracted by new email in my inbox, or even by existing mail in my inbox that I haven't read yet but feel like I should, since it's been sitting there for hours or days. (The truth is generally those emails are NOT urgent, which is why I skipped them in the first place.) Before I know it, I'm dealing with inbox email, completely off track from my original focus which led me to search for a specific email.<p>Does this happen to you? Any tips on how to avoid this, e.g. is there a way to search GMail without seeing your inbox?