Since I started full time work very recently I've grappled with similar things but have had some different results than you. Particularly, I've been able to separate home and work e-mail pretty well. I've got two Thunderbird profiles; one for work, one for everything else. When I go home for the day (or stop working for the day), I switch to the other profile and don't open the work one again until the next day. This may work for me because most of my mail is bugmail or mailing lists that don't need immediate attention. I've found this really helps me get more done during the day since I'm not distracted with random people e-mailing me, or random RSS feeds (web comics are killer for me here).
I tend to lurk on IRC in my off-work hours.
I totally hear you on meeting minimization. Since I've taken a hiatus from QA my meeting schedule has gone done to 2 hours per week and I can concentrate on things for longer periods of time. As you said, it's awesome!
