If the app's open, it'll send you push notifications if closed, it'll bundle notifications up and email them to you. Trello, Slack, Basecamp, Google Docs, and other apps are smart with their notifications. Or use a tool like to clean up all of your subscription emails at once.īalance push and email notifications. Just click the Unsubscribe link in the bottom of the email notifications you don't want-that's a quick way to quit getting that one notification type. Or maybe you don't need that daily email either. Perhaps a daily notification of changes in your project is all you need, rather than minute-by-minute details. Unsubscribe from extraneous email notifications. Check your apps and tweak the settings to get just the notifications you want. Most apps let you pick what you want to get notified about, such as only when emails come in from a favorite contact or when you are mentioned in a specific Slack channel. Instead, when you try out something new, disable notifications until you're sure you want notifications from it. The trick is getting only the important notifications-and nothing else.ĭon't enable notifications in new apps by default. It's all too easy to tap OK and forget about it-that is, until it dings right when you're in the middle of something.īut you do need notifications of important messages from your colleagues and reminders of upcoming appointments. You know the drill: Download a new app, open it the first time, and it'll ask to send you notifications. Slack includes detailed notification settings for your conversactions There are two ways to keep things simplified without switching to working on a small tablet. Those little unread notifications in your Dock and system tray may just be tiny red dots, but they grab your eye, pull your attention away from the task at hand, and tempt you to switch focus. Your computer and browser are designed to run as many programs at once as you want. And when I got an external display and the Dock stayed over in my laptop's screen, just slightly out of sight, the effect carried over. Just without the dock's tiny unread notifications at the bottom of my screen, I wasn't nearly as tempted to check Slack a dozen times an hour. I noticed the same effect on my Mac when working in full-screen apps. It was easier to keep working on the current document than to switch to something else. Aside from notifications, there was nothing to distract you-and at that time, switching apps was slow and cumbersome. What made the difference was that every app took over the full screen. Yet somehow, when I needed to write, I found myself far more productive on its 9.7" screen than on my laptop. The first-generation iPad was far from the most powerful computer of its day. Hopefully they can help you strike a balance between being "plugged in" and maintaining your focus. Here are the steps that help me keep distractions at bay, while still staying informed of the info I need. We may need to be informed, but we need to stay focused far more. It's a wonder we get anything accomplished! University of California, Irvine professor of informatics Gloria Mark found in a 2012 study that the average worker is interrupted once every 3 minutes-and that it can take up to 23 minutes to get back to your original task. Sure, it's nice to know when a new message comes in and handy to be able to ping a co-worker whenever you need. So while you're working on your computer, it'll tap you on the shoulder every so often with some super important information. They're smart enough to know our next appointment times and the latest headlines we'd be interested in-and they keep us informed of all these details as well. Today, computers are hardly usable without an internet connection, complete with its infinite store of distractions. Each year, some new feature would be added that'd make them easier to use-and slightly more distracting as well. The first personal computers were little more than a blank screen with a terminal where you'd type in text commands. But they're also perhaps the most distracting devices ever invented.
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