Here’s the question I always have about this kind of article. How? Particularly for those who are employees rather than founders. If you work at any kind of a high-demand job, and your title isn’t “partner” or “CEO,” it’s not like the e-mail that you’re sneaking off to the bathroom to write is optional. There’s a fairly good chance that it’s a reply to someone who expects a reply, who has power and authority, and there’s also a fairly good chance that if you reply to it later, that in the interim five or six (or fifty or sixty) other e-mails will have piled up, and you’ll never be able to get your core duties done now.

So it’s all fine and dandy to say “be mentally as well as physically present,” but what does that actually mean in terms of practically handling the demands of the job?