IM Valuable business tool or constant distraction

[temi]

I think IM (Instant Messengers) are great business tool, it facilitates quick and efficient communication but it can also take over your time, people you do not necessary want to talk to can contact you when they see that you are online. For this reason I do not login to IM by default any more, you need to request my presence on IM if you want to chat to me and I deliberately use obscured IM such as ICQ to keep people on my contact list to a minimum, how do you use IM, what do you think of it? Please vote.

[SticKer]

Well sometimes its really handy and I try to keep my chat conversations minimal so I don't waste my time on it.

[temi]

But how do you handle people you do not want to talk to who contact you? (they are not nuisance, you just don't want to speak to them at that particular moment).

[SticKer]

Just ignore them if your busy and once your free you can message them back or if you get messages when your busy, send them a short message that you'll talk later.

[darkstar_tfd_2]

I use IM lately more and more.

When I am busy I just stay invisible or logout

[temi]

The logout option sounds fine or in my case not logging in the first place.

[Dimitar Christoff]

i telecommute often and find skype invaluable

[john_logic]

only use IM within company ie to staff member in next room - "have you got a second?"
used to use if with clients and it was a nightmare - now all client stuff goes through our support system - far less distracting and everything is documented properly