productivity? what is this thing of which you speak?

tamsie...oh, I see!

I leave Plurk up in a Firefox tab, Outlook is always on so I can respond quickly to work stuff, & I have a Twitter thing on Google desktop.

I check them when I can or when I need a small break.

Yes. It doesn't affect my productivity because the only time I look at it is when I need a break from my work: coding.

I keep plurk up but it doesn't affect my work but it probably would if I had the sound on

It's on, it affects my productivity, but not that of my computer.