It also depends on what your task queue is. I’d expect an IC to have a few tasks to work on with complete focus for hours at a time. Senior management however, having delegated properly, I’d expect to have a large set of tasks that require a limited amount of time to address.

Eg you’d expect a CEO to enter a meeting, receive a variety of reports from their staff and make a final call or two — and then moving onto another meeting in an entirely different domain — and do so fluidly without interruption.

Which would make it a lot easier to be readily available for ad-how things like emails. Though 5-minutes feels a little much.