Workplace experts say that the average worker switches tasks every three minutes, and, once distracted, takes nearly a half-hour to resume the original task. We take our distractions home, too, spending time with our family, only to think about everything that happened at work today and what`s about to happen tomorrow.

The remedy is to identify and control distractions.

A typical office worker turns to e-mail more than 50 times a day and uses instant-messaging 77 times, according to Seattle-based computer-productivity consultant RescueTime.