Digital Cleanse Day 2: Turn Off Notifications
Turn off notifications for all of your mobile apps and desktop applications. They distract you from your current task, ruin your productivity and stress you out. Plus, a notification alert derails a task list in less than one second.
Notifications drive many people crazy! Bing. Bing. Bing. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Frankly, in public, your notifications are as annoying as mine. So, turn them off. It’s very freeing.
You’ll still see the flags, mentions or comment alerts in whatever tools you use. The difference is that you’ll log in when you can deal with them in a focused, organized and thoughtful way.
Check each app or application at the interval that makes sense for you. That might be twice a day, once a week or randomly when you have a few spare moments. If you’re worried about response times, schedule regular, recurring “look at notification” appointments in your calendar.
During your notification time, do the following:
- Read to gather information communicated.
- Deal with the quick replies in the moment.
- Diarize any action items arising to act on them fully when you have time.
- If possible, archive or delete anything you won’t need to see again.
Clustering your notification time improves your productivity, protects your daily task and keeps stress at bay. Sounds good, right? Go turn off notifications now.
I concede one exception to the rule. Kids. The school’s got to be able to reach you if your child is injured or ill. Or you may have some equally important reasons you must be reached. For example, stock market information if you’re an investor, medical professionals if you are in their urgent care, or the security alarm system for your business. If you must be instantly reachable, then settle on one communication method for urgent situations.
More on the 30 day #digitalcleanse tomorrow. Hope to see you then!
(And, if you missed yesterday’s installment, take a couple extra minutes to explore The App Diet.)