I check my work email a bit over once an hour if I'm not specifically expecting anything important. Usually I note that nothing has come in, so it's very quick. I categorize each thing that comes in, which takes a few seconds for each category. I do not have a large volume of mail.
For personal email, I leave Mail open, and take note of incoming message popups, and sometimes click to it by accident. When I end up in Mail, I quickly make sure I didn't miss anything urgent (which is rare but does happen) and ignore the rest until the evening, or at least lunch.
How frequently do you think you *should* check email? You can also say how frequently you do in comments.
Personally I'm sold on thinking you should check it around once a day, not necessarily without fail. That increases focus on both email and non-email, and minimises getting sucked into distractions. But some people I know disagree. Some believe in getting notifications whenever a new email comes in.
For anyone who'd like to check email less often and uses GMail, I recommend using http://inboxpause.com/ and this full screen compose link: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&shva=1
Edited to add: I'd recommend everyone at least try checking only once a day, at least for a few days, to see if you find it more productive and/or relaxing. That'd be a big enough win to make experimenting worthwhile.