4) Focus on one another

We're so used to splitting our focus between PDAs and TVs, and people and tasks that it's hard to truly attend to any one thing. But continuous partial attention undermines the depth and quality of our relationships and our interactions. When we give each other half-focus in conversations, on conference calls or at meals, we are effectively saying, "you aren't worth my time."

As well, the "creative energy and critical thinking" that occurs in a good work meeting is lost when everyone's madly checking e-mail, writes Intel principal engineer Nathan Zeldes in an article on the costs of "infomania" in the e-journal First Monday. Focusing in full on one another can help people better connect in a fast-paced, overloaded world.