Life is full of distractions. There is so much noise now that “attention” has become a resource for us that we must “use” carefully. One trick I use to regain control over my focus is to turn off push notifications on my phone for non-essential apps. I have disabled notifications from:
- Social Media Apps: I don’t need to know when someone likes my post/comment in real-time. When I am free, I open the apps and check notifications manually.
- Email App: Email is an asynchronous communication method anyway. If something is urgent, it won’t come via email. Checking email once a day is plenty.
- Instant Message apps: Instant messaging probably needs to be instant. But even then, do you really need to allow all 500 of your messenger friends to be able to distract you whenever they feel like it? Just mute every group/person that pings you.
- Fine to make some exceptions here (e.g. I don’t mute my wife).
- What if someone needs to contact you urgently? They will just call you directly 🙂
Stop letting spammy apps decide when you check your phone. Make your own conscious decision.
I try to be very selective about which apps send me push notifications on my phone. And it’s not even that hard to manage. Whenever I get distracted by a notification, I pause to think if I want to allow that notification to distract me again. If the answer is no, I just turn it off.
Life is much more peaceful without your phone constantly stealing your focus. Hope this helps you with attention management. Best of luck.
awesome advice!!