Tip : Turn off instant messengers while working
 

Yeah, it's necessary to do that in order to work efficiently and with dedication. If you chat with your friends while working then that doesn't set the right mood plus it makes your mind wander.

I can do both pretty well. ICQ is how I communicate with 90% of the people in adult.

I agree with that hun...I try and keep it off as much as possible, but I do lot's of work via ICQ....I have to balance it.

The vast majority of my work is done via communictaion whether it be e-mail, ICQ, or phone. Can't keep it off. It's on practically 24-7 365. The only time it's off is if I am out of town or a storm comes through with lots of lightning.

During the last couple months I've started to experience system crashes when ICQ and Yahoo Messenger are on when I work with Dreamweaver (current version). I have not made the upgrade to Vista and still run Windows XP Pro.

My solution until I upgrade to Vista is to run the messengers on one machine while I work on the neighboring one... but then Murphy's Law hits. I get an IM with a complex URL that needs to be viewed on the machine dedicated to a project. Ugh.

Thats all right....
and its really nice tip.........good stuff

4sure!! Whenever I start programming anything that requires my full attention I kill ICQ, otherwise I would never get anything done.

Mine is a communication tool more than a distraction. It has not really interefered with my work flow in the past few years.

I generally put mine on away and usually ignore certain folk, but I am paid to talk to people - not going to refuse them if they ask about work related questions

That seems to be a hard thing for me to do . First I work different hours then some clients (time zones) .. I also don't have chat/messenger on my Work pc .. I use two computers at the studio . one for general work .the other for graphix, video, compression, editing ..etc .. no chat on that one .. I try to dedicate at least an hour a day to chat . but it seems to go by so quickly .

if anyone has a better work schedule on how not to loss so much time on chat or the boards .. please let me know !

I am dead in the water without ICQ. Now, my carcas will rot, seep into the Continental shelf and the Plankton (those bastards) will gang up on me. They are notorious Anti Semites after all.

This goes on and on. It escalates. Now the top soil gets all yucky and icky. They merge into something yicky like and before you know it hockey gets decided in a shoot out.

No, I keep mine on.

Damn. Good weed.

Agreed - it can be a useful tool as well. Best to ignore the ones who want to chit-chat then.