Interestingly there seems to be a recent trend of not being a slave to your email, twitter, FB, etc. I suppose people are starting to realize that urgent things don't necessarily come from these mediums and as much as we have come to rely on them, they provide us with more noise than useful data.

I've been trying to check email twice daily at scheduled times and respond to emails in "batch" instead of as they come in. It's definitely increased the number of "concentrated" hours I put into a task.