The high cost of interruptions
Merlin points to a killer article at News.com about the cost of interruptions (including e-mail) at work and steps some companies and individuals have taken to regain focus. Choice quotes:
The typical office worker is interrupted every three minutes by a phone call, e-mail, instant message or other distraction. The problem is that it takes about eight uninterrupted minutes for our brains to get into a really creative state.
The problem, (IBM's Dan) Russell said, is that there are only certain types of tasks that humans are good at doing simultaneously. Cooking and talking on the phone go together fine, as does walking and chewing gum (for most people). But try and do three math problems at once, and you are sure to have a problem.