My strategy is basically:<p>-&gt; Politely ask colleagues to send you an IM instead of discussing in person. The context switch hit from a conversation is significantly worse than from an IM.<p>-&gt; Answer questions by making&#x2F;editing a wiki page then send a link. Although I find this is less helpful for one off questions or during times of super high work load.<p>-&gt; If you&#x27;ve helped person X with a similar problem in the past then simply outsource the question to person X.<p>-&gt; Worst case (especially if someone asks the same question multiple times) play dumb :)