Just read a great article by Ole Eichhorn called the tyrrany of email that provides some really good ground rules for dealing with the constant interruption that email causes.
I see most of his points, but at the end he says:
In re: working on “fun” stuff instead of “hard” stuff, it is interesting to think about what makes some tasks fun and others hard. I think happiness comes from liking yourself, and fun things are things which make you like yourself. Tasks which are fun are therefore tasks which you know how to do, and which demonstrate your proficiency. Tasks which are hard are tasks which you don’t know how to do, or which reveal a lack of expertise. There is often feedback involved - fun tasks will gain you recognition from customers or coworkers, but hard tasks may not.
which I feel totally misses a second kind of hard: Tedious work. I’m talking about work you know how to do well, but is so difficult and soul-sucking that you really loathe to do it. I’m talking about the “Make this HTML page and use tables to make single pixel borders” kind of task. The tasks where you know there’s a better way, but for whatever reasons you have to do, but for whatever reason aren’t hot RIGHT NOW. If someone has a cure for that kind of task, I’m all ears.
Aside from oversimplifying the different kinds of ‘hard’, it’s a great article, and I’ve shut off my email, and will be turning off IM when I’m ‘in the zone’.