What do you do in The Sims that you really need to stop doing, but keep coming back to?

Two sims in the same room on computers, one starts talking to the other repeatedly even after stopping them, they are back at it 45 sim minutes later, it happens like clockwork without fail.
Same with a sim cooking with the inspired trait, someone comes up and distracts them.

in both occasions it slow any progress they make on their own projects to a crawl.