Nowadays, communication via instant messengers is not new for anyone wishing to maintain continuous communication with their clients or team members. And for those who would like to improve their productivity while using this great online business tool, Web Worker Daily's Leo Babauta featured an informative blog post about the 17 Tips to Be Productive with Instant Messaging.

I'm all for this specific tip about improving productivity through block your unproductive online pals.

Block unproductive friends. This tip may sound harsh, but there are many people who just want to chat with you all the time, with no real purpose. These are not good chat friends - they might be good friends in real life, but they waste your time on chat. Block them (if you need to, send them a polite message explaining that you're cutting back on using chat because you're trying to get more done).

And I'd recommend having another instant messaging service or account for your business contacts separate from what you use for chatting with your friends, say Yahoo! Messenger for friends and GTalk for business contacts.