diff --git a/i3pystatus/__init__.py b/i3pystatus/__init__.py
index c6cccff..ffeee6f 100644
--- a/i3pystatus/__init__.py
+++ b/i3pystatus/__init__.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import sys
 import json
 import urllib.request, urllib.error, urllib.parse
 from threading import Thread
+import time
 
 class BaseModule:
     output = None
@@ -26,6 +27,17 @@ class AsyncModule(BaseModule):
     def mainloop(self):
         """This is run in a separate daemon-thread"""
 
+class IntervalModule(AsyncModule):
+    interval = 5 # seconds
+
+    def run(self):
+        """Called every self.interval seconds"""
+
+    def mainloop(self):
+        while True:
+            self.run()
+            time.sleep(self.interval)
+
 class I3statusHandler:
     modules = []
 
diff --git a/i3pystatus/notmuchmailchecker.py b/i3pystatus/notmuch.py
similarity index 90%
rename from i3pystatus/notmuchmailchecker.py
rename to i3pystatus/notmuch.py
index 51e59b0..2633bd9 100644
--- a/i3pystatus/notmuchmailchecker.py
+++ b/i3pystatus/notmuch.py
@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@
 import notmuch
 import json
 
-class NotmuchMailChecker(object):
+from i3pystatus import IntervalModule
+
+class NotmuchMailChecker(IntervalModule):
     """ 
     This class uses the notmuch python bindings to check for the
     number of messages in the notmuch database with the tags "inbox"
@@ -18,7 +20,7 @@ class NotmuchMailChecker(object):
     def __init__(self, db_path):
         self.db_path = db_path
 
-    def output(self):
+    def run(self):
         db = notmuch.Database(self.db_path)
         unread = notmuch.Query(db, 'tag:unread and tag:inbox').count_messages()