I would consider that you add a step before making a phone call or going and tapping somebody on the shoulder.
The thing that most threatens my zone is when the headphones need to come out. The _only_ exception is a simple yes/no, such as, "hey, want a coffee from Starbucks?" Anything bigger, whether a phone call or tap on the shoulder can really kill my session or workday. I'm talking your five minute conversation costing an hour or more of wasted time.
What do I recommend? Message me first and say "hey are you free to chat?"
> Anything bigger, whether a phone call or tap on the shoulder can really kill my session or workday.
This is so manifestly out of proportion to the disruption that I would (gently, as I am not unsympathetic, and personally I have no problem with IM, though emails can go to hell because developers generally ignore them) call it the kind of personal problem I'd hope you could work on and improve rather than imposing that on everybody around you who expect generally reasonable parameters of human interaction.
The thing that most threatens my zone is when the headphones need to come out. The _only_ exception is a simple yes/no, such as, "hey, want a coffee from Starbucks?" Anything bigger, whether a phone call or tap on the shoulder can really kill my session or workday. I'm talking your five minute conversation costing an hour or more of wasted time.
What do I recommend? Message me first and say "hey are you free to chat?"