No matter what psychologists claim about smartphones and our addictions to them, they won’t be going away. Sure we might overindulge from time to time, but we generally tend to control our smartphone usage. However there are plenty of times when we’d like our smartphones to leave us alone, and if we truly want to get control of them you need to take the time to manage your notification pop-ups. Phones are designed to grab our attention with beeps and chimes that have us trained like dogs to treats. In general, there’s a far higher percentage of time that truly requires our immediate attention, so for work, church, mealtime, and bedtime, you need to manage your notifications so they don’t bother you at all times of the day.
iPhones, for example, come with a great news aggregator with Apple News. However, out of the box, the phone will notify you of events going on around the globe without really giving you a chance to opt out.
Similarly, Androids will notify you on just about everything under the sun, including your Gmail email which beeps way too much with spam.
No matter the device, they’re all just a little too attention grabbing these days.
Here’s how to manage your Apple iOS notifications:
- Open Settings
- Click on Notifications
- Each app on your iPhone will be listed. Turn off notifications by selecting each app individually and clicking through the options.
You can also set a schedule for your iPhone to Do Not Disturb during certain hours of the day or night to prevent any notifications from popping up. Simply open Settings, click on Do Not Disturb and create a schedule. You can create rules for people in your Favorites contacts list so you make sure you don’t block out important family members and friends.