[bmj]

I agree. I'm a big fan of asynchronous communication.

I only use IM for work and communicating with my wife during the work day. Fortunately, we use Skype at the office, so I can minimize my exposure to friends. I've discovered that even when I set my status in, say, Google Chat, to "Leave me alone" people still contact me, so I just got in the habit of not signing in.

I also don't have a high volume of email--even with list memberships, I probably don't receive more than 50 emails a day.