Turn off notifications

This exercise is for you if you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media when you picked up your phone to message a loved one. If you’re constantly unable to complete even half of your planned tasks. If you don’t feel better after taking a break. If you have no energy left by the end of the day.

But it can be the opposite — you can spend the whole day doing what you intended. Then almost all the tasks from your “Today” list get done by the end of the day. When you take a break, you actually rest instead of mindlessly browsing social media. By the end of the day, you’re not as tired, and you have energy left for relaxation.

To achieve this, you need to avoid scattering your attention. For example, by removing notifications.

Turn off notifications on your phone and tablet, except for:

• Calls and messages from loved ones;
• Notifications that you need to see immediately, such as from taxi apps;
• Notifications from apps you don’t regularly check but need to know if something happens there.

Feel free to turn off notifications from email, work chats, and social networks. You won’t miss anything and will respond in a reasonable time because you regularly check these anyway. Almost always, notifications don’t require an immediate response. You’ll handle work issues when you’re at your computer. You’ll see who liked your photo when you decide to check.

Just because someone wants an answer now doesn’t mean you have to drop everything and respond. At least, this doesn’t apply to everyone around you and certainly not to likes on social media.

In apps where only some notifications are critical, keep only those. If you communicate with loved ones in a messenger, turn off notifications from the neighbors’ chat.

Give it a try. If something goes wrong, you can always turn the notifications back on, but most likely, you’ll like it.