IMing Your Way to Productivity

Every year, a new study seems to come out claiming that either IMing is a productivity timesuck or that it's actually a useful, relatively non-intrusive tool. Recently, the scientific pendulum has swung to the "useful" side, as a recent study found that "workers who used instant messaging on the job reported less interruption than colleagues who did not."
That sounds pretty similar to a study Rick rooted out last year, but at that time I was still a non-believer and would religiously turn all of my settings to "do not disturb." Here's the very simple way I've started to finally open up to IM as a work tool.

1) I Use Meebo:

It combines all of my IM screens (GTalk, AIM, Yahoo!IM, etc.) into one page that I can manage without having an epileptic fit watching several different screens flash with incoming messages at once

2) I Go offline on Facebook:

To do that, simply click on the head icon and switch your preferences at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. None of those people want to talk work; if they do, they can reach me through other channels.

3) I don't worry if I miss a message:

People who get pissed if I don't write back to their email don't seem to mind if their "what's up?" message gets totally ignored. Getting that through my head has been the catalyst to my adoption of IMing throughout the workday.