Office workers are interrupted—or self-interrupt—roughly every three minutes, academic studies have found, with numerous distractions coming in both digital and human forms.

Julie Morgenstern, author of "Never Check E-mail in the Morning," said: "It's important to recognize how much is coming from outside and how much is self-interruption. I think we self-interrupt just as much as we're interrupted by others."

Resist the urge to "self-interrupt" — it is far better to do a brief reminder to yourself to do it, make a note and put it aside to do later, and get back to the task at hand.