I remember a study that was shared with me in the 1990’s regarding software programmer productivity, in which they found that the number one variable that impacted productivity the most was “office space.”

In other words, the larger the office, the more likely it was to have a door, and the more likely the programmer could create the peace and quiet needed to program.

That has stayed with me ever since.

I imagine a zone of quiet around me when I need to focus on a single task, and I allow little to interrupt it (when I’m being good!) including phones, emails, etc. When I re-open the zone to start taking inputs, I take them all at once, checking email, voicemail, F’book messages, etc one after the other.

The book “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was also useful to me in learning why the peak experience is so important to doing deep work.

I leave my phone in the car when I’m watching my kids play sports. Two weeks ago my mom called 5 times because my grandmother was being rushed to the hospital. I felt awful for not “being there” to get the calls but the reality is, that even if I had answered, there was nothing that I could have done to make her better or get her to the hospital more quickly. She was already in good medical hands and being cared for.

So if you happen to miss that one urgent call it might mean that someone had to move forward with decision on their own, your kids might not have any milk for cereal in the morning or the person on the other end of the line might have to call 911 to come rescue them, but things will get taken care of and life will go on.

2. Smarten your GTD system #1: “Triage” incoming emails. This separates the important from the seemingly urgent. At up to 2 min. each, full-blown “processing” leads to Doing a lot of little, urgent things. See this article:
Three Kinds of Email

3. Smarten your GTD system #2: Time boxing. Tag “Important” tasks in their categories, then look at only those categories at the right times. Some GTD software can do that automatically. Look for the “time categorization” feature in this list:
Exhaustive Comparison of GTD Software

P.S. Turning off email reminders was already suggested. Here are instructions for that in Outlook:
Turning Off Email Reminders in Outlook

My “urgent addiction” usually comes in the form of obsessively checking email (I’m trying to use The Now Habit to do better) but now a very close second is BLOGS – reading and posting – oh dear!

Ding. I’m about to consume another yummy text message.

What a distressing state. I can’t wait for a renaissance.

@casper: I agree, text messages are much friendlier than phone calls. However, they’re still invasive. They ring or buzz and demand attention (or try to demand it, anyway).