Have you noticed that though people complain of digital distraction, almost all of it is environmental/organic. It has actually become far harder to deliberately interrupt anyone.
Conversation
People screen calls, don't check VM, and block weird numbers.
Fewer people have routines where you can waylay them, like taking the 9:04 train predictably, due to flexwork
Email has dissolved into multiple DM channels and you can't be sure of successful interrupt on any of them
Replying to
And more important people generally have even more unpredictable routines (lots of travel), not to mention more people running interference on interrupt attempts as has always been the case
1
5
And fewer and fewer people are important enough to pull off a sort of "holding court" time (of which office hours is a middle-brow example) where they can manage an attention-demand queue on their own terms
3
Replying to
You know the story about Steve Jobs wanting his new HQ to have only a single bathroom to encourage random meetings.
1

