You can customize the IM settings so you are notified only when someone sends you an IM. Even when one of the other 2 sends me an IM, I sometimes just ignore it and continue with whatever I was doing. I may notice, but if I’m busy, I won’t click on the IM box.

I really like IM because it allows us to ask each other questions without being too intrusive. If you are on the phone with someone, and need to check on something – you can just send an IM and get a response quickly – without having to stop your phone call.

@MAC
If you need absolutely no distractions whatsoever, then you don’t need to go on about IM. Include phones, email clients, etc.

Note: IM clients always have settings to disable the “pinging”. Stop the flashing lights and sounds, auto respond with a message when you’re busy, etc.

As a software architect and developer, I am constantly trying to remain focused on the task at hand and am often juggling 10-20 different balls that all need to be properly addressed for the task to be successful. Even the subtle ping of an incoming request can make you drop some of those balls – say nothing of if you actually stop and pick up the IM. When you get that ping, you want to stop and see that email or IM. That, in turn, causes mistakes and poor productivity as you are continually trying to pick up the balls that are being dropped. Consequently, I simply turn IM off most of the time. And since turned off is the same as not having it, I don’t even start the client to conserve resources.

I extend my email pickup interval and turn off notifications for the very same reasons. I suspect that if other people don’t do the same, they just don’t know how.

IM does have it useful purposes however. For example, as long as you don’t allow it to be distracting, it is useful to be able to communicate with coworkers via IM to establish strategy changes while in sales calls.

I don’t think it’s hard to extrapolate my example to most other job descriptions; especially those involving complex tasks. Therefore, I am not terribly surprised by these figures.

I’m not sure I buy the “email is configurable to not interrupt you” argument though. Most people don’t seem to use it that way, and those that do would surely be wise enough to be able to set the status on their IM client to avoid interruptions during busy times?

I have had similar talks with my wife, who works in a law office. She tells me that the reason she’s even farther behind the tech revolution than I am is because she just doesn’t have the time to learn all the latest stuff, including IM.

I think this is true of many workers — there is just too much to do at the office, so even if the boss is willing to shell out for the latest in soft & hardware, there’s no time to learn to use it.