It's not a tool problem, it's a policy problem. If you replace phones and skype with another tool that still insists on interrupting you, you won't save any ti

It's not a tool problem, it's a policy problem. If you replace phones and skype with another tool that still insists on interrupting you, you won't save any time at all... That's why I still like Idling on IRC channels. Seriously, it might sound silly and old fashioned, but there is nothing better to communicate AND work that being on a channel that you mostly ignore. Go there once and hour, or once a day, read the backlog, reply to anything that is still relevant, then get back to work. If you have a question for someone, assume you'll /eventually/ get replied to, just don't hang there waiting. So, disable these notifications, and forget about it for a while. The tool is not the problem, it's the users in this instance...