I Don't Like to Be Pushed Around
1-Minute Engineering on Productivity — Edition #11
Notifications are the biggest digital bullies—and they steal our focus every day.
You brew your coffee, arrange your desk, and sit down at your desk, ready to enter the flow. And then they start popping up. Your watch taps on your wrist to let you know that a friend closed his workout rings. Your phone vibrates because you got a comment on your latest post on social media and got a like. Your computer flashes you with new email updates from the project issue tracker.
And they keep pilling up.
I remember when Tim Cook announced the Apple Watch and made a huge fuss about how great it would be to receive all the notifications that you already receive on your phone on your wrist. I wondered then, and I’m still wondering today, why?
Instead of being pushed around, I want to be intentional about what notifications I receive on my devices. By default, I disable all push notifications and only enable those that I care about.
On My Watch
There’s nothing more annoying than my watch vibrating on my wrist every 5 minutes. I hate it.
I took a more minimalist approach and installed only the applications useful for a watch: clock-related apps, health and fitness apps, messages (SMS), email, calendar, tasks, and reminders.
As for the notifications, I enabled only the following:
Incoming calls
Messages(SMS)
Calendar Events
Tasks and Reminders
Stand-up reminders to take a break from the computer.
For all the other apps, I disabled the notifications, and I use the widgets or the apps when I need them.
On My Phone
Although I didn’t manage to maintain a minimalist approach for the apps I use on my phone, I do keep most of my notifications off. I only allow a couple:
Messages
Phone calls
Calendar Events
Tasks and Reminders
For notifications that I still want to receive but don’t want to distract me, I added them into daily summaries:
Chat messages
News
Emails
Social Media
A great feature of my iPhone, but one I don’t use fully, is the ability to define Focus modes and configure notifications based on the context. For example, you might want to receive notifications when your PR gets approved at work, but you might want to turn those notifications off when you are with your family.
This is something I will want to take advantage of in the future.
Oh, and I deleted the social media apps from my phone. I’m currently only using Substack on mobile.
On My Computer
My MacBook is my main productivity device because here is where I get most of the things done.
However, this is also where I have the fewest notifications:
Calendar
Tasks and Reminders
SMS
Email
When I need to use social media, I do it from the computer and try to keep it as intentional as possible. Although there are times when I enter the rabbit hole and forget why I got there in the first place. 🤷♂️
In the end, my goal is to be as intentional as possible with my devices and use them to cover for my human flaws. That’s why most of the notifications that I have enabled are time-sensitive.
If your devices are running your attention, take 10 minutes today to review your notifications. You might be surprised at how much you can reclaim.
—Alex