How big of a challenge was this for you? That's a major change in work function and I could see it being difficult at first.

At the time, it wasn't difficult but only because I didn't realize exactly what was happening. It took me a long time to realize that the lack of work being done mid-day was due to the fact that I was doing too many things, then stopping to answer an email, stopping to answer a phone call, etc. I would sometimes have a design file open for 5 or 6 hours, but only work on it for an hour during that stretch of time.

Once I started realizing how much time switching tasks ate up, I began quitting my email, skype, etc. on my computer when I started on a project. Because I had no cell service in my bedroom, my phone was in the living room and I used an app called MightyText (android) for receiving alerts / text messages on my computer. This does two things: I never looked at my phone and I could only passively read the messages coming in. I could open the app if I really needed to respond, but adding that layer of difficulty made it so that I only responded to things that were absolutely necessary. When I was done with whatever task, I would open up all the apps again and then bulk-respond to all the messages at once.

This led to more productive work, less hurried emails / messages, and (especially for Skype / Slack / Texts) it led to not having to deal with as much. When someone messages you on those platforms, 99% of the time it's something like, "What's the link to XYZ page?" If you don't respond, they figure it out themselves and you don't have to spend the time stopping what you were doing, navigating to the page or folder, sending the response, and then figuring out where you left off, and starting work again. While the navigating and responding part takes maybe 3 minutes, the "getting back to work" can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours.

It took me a while to figure out this process though and I only accidentally realized how positive shutting off the email / messaging apps when I was working on a large project in Final Cut Pro and my computer would sound like a rocketship if I had everything else open.