Photo: Sam Kaplan

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Regain Your Focus
Why interrupt your work just to check email? Your smartphone can inform you when a high-priority message—from, say, your boss—hits your mailbox. Just set up an alert on your iPhone by clicking on a sender's name in a message and choosing "Add to VIP." For most brands of Android devices, you simply forward emails from important contacts in your work account to your Gmail and label them; then use the Gmail app to sync messages with that tag to your phone. You can then select a tone that will sound when a can't-miss missive arrives.