118 Loud & Clear Take, for example, this classic scenario from a writer friend of mine. She was trying to focus on a hugely important dead- line, but had to keep her e-mail activated because she was waiting for a crucial piece of information to wrap her story. It was supposed to get sent to her that day. She kept the "beep" on her e-mail so she could step away from her computer and focus on her work; she could work across the room on her laptop and only get interrupted when the beep sounded. When the beep sounded earlier than expected, she thought: Hooray! She could finally finish; the piece of information she was waiting for would finally move the project along! When she checked the screen, she saw it wasn't what she had ex- pected, but instead, an e-mail from a former associate who had just gotten a new cat. Great. Good news is always a wel- come distraction. And it didn't really faze her when she saw there were about 25 other people listed in the "to" list. Not yet