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I think if you work from home and your office is in cybespace, most interruptions are self-made and it's a matter of self-discipline to minimize them.

When I was a stock broker, we used to get training on how to minimize office interreptions: if someone comes into your office, you don't offer them a seat and/or stand up yourself, if the phone rings - you excuse yourself that you have to take the important call, if they sit down - you get up while talking and start walking out of the office so they will follow you out, keep the chairs in front of your desk cluttered with stuff that you clear up for scheduled appointments, etc.

I would be curious to hear about new "virtual"/home office interruptions and how people are handling them.

Virtual distractions:

1.) This online community; I enjoy the responses and posts so much I sometimes check end and spend time on the site when I need a brain break - sometimes that brain break takes 30 -45 minutes, LOL!

2.) Text messages - my kids are teenagers and involved in afterschool activities, I believe they have forgotten how to use a telephone so I get text messages from 3-6 telling me where they are and when they need to be picked up.

3.) I check email on the fly, so it is not just email from clients, my virtual assistant, or my wife, it is the 101 email newsletters I subscribe to, the Lands End email specials and my all time favorite alerts from USC sports (the real USC - University of South Carolina class of 88', Go Gamecocks!)

4.) Shopping online - I haven't been to a mall this year. I finished my Christmas shopping all online, on Black Friday.

CorpCons. My wife says the same thing about me She says that I spend more time responding to emails
than paying attention to her or choirs and she loves it.
LUCKIEST

We nearly always have client projects with year-end milestones, and about 80 percent of the technical work seems to get done in the last 20 percent of the available time. So right up until Christmas, we still have too much work left to do to be distracted.

My teams are mostly telecommuters and independent contractors, so we tend not to have the interruptions, festive atmosphere, or other pre-holiday "distractions" you find in a typical workplace. (Unfortunately, we don't have all the homemade treats, either!) Those with school age kids definitely have more activities to fit in this time of year, but as I noted in another thread, we mainly work toward project deliverables, not a time clock -- so I think the flexible schedule helps them be where they need to be.

I love Christmas and the spirit that accompanies it. For me personally, though, outdoor summertime activities present more of a distraction. As the weather cools off and it gets dark earlier, I find it easier to be inside and focused on work.

I tend to agree that online comunites are addicitve. In addition to this one and Yahoo Answers (which brought me here), I also run a stock picking message board (http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TradingZoom/)

• from which I also grew a trading data subscription business; plus recently somebedy here suggested http://www.ezinearticles.com/ (I wanted to thank them but could not find the post) so I got hooked on that one too (http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Slav_Fedorov); but apart from that I think I am in the minority here:

I am in the stock trading business, and with the exception of some intense moments when I have to stay completely focused (no phone calls, emails, or conversations with wife), I have to sit around and wait for the stocks to do what I bought them to do - so I have plenty of time to kill. I am still watching the market but basically I have to DISTRACT myself from overmanaging and overtrading, so these online communites are a perfect fit for me. I have to be careful and not spread myself too thin but this community is clearly well run, with quality people.

There are also periods when I spend a lot of time doing research, and online communites help me get my mind off what I am doing and take a break.

No problem at all. It's all true - I truly learn a lot from the members of this board!