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Turning off all notifications on my personal phone was a life changer. No longer I feel like I'm wearing an electronic collar. Giving everyone who has your cont

Turning off all notifications on my personal phone was a life changer. No longer I feel like I'm wearing an electronic collar. Giving everyone who has your contact information access to your attention is poison to the ability to concentrate. Another big thing for me was cutting down on infinite scrolling, blogs and videos and spending a lot more time with long form content (mainly books). Attention is our most precious resource and we should guard fiercely against attempts to monetize it.

ge96 4y ago
My phone is always on mute (no vibrate either) Only alarms to wake up
- andrewljohnson 4y ago
  Having a family and responsibilities made this infeasible for me. Most apps on my phone are denied notifications, but people can still text/call me.
  - namaria 4y ago
    I also have family and responsibilities. But I am very careful whom I give unfettered access to my attention.
    - copperx 4y ago
      Everybody who depends on you directly (partner, children, parents, and extended family) should be on you VIP contact list and have direct access to you. I find that reduces my anxiety. I don't get distracted by notifications, or the thought that someone might be dying and trying to reach me.
      - ge96 4y ago
        Just commenting about phone calls I have stranger phone call anxiety and the other thing is spam/scam calls. Which thankfully my phone has been good at flagging/blocking. Regarding notifications I used to have phones that either had LED blinking indicators or sound/beeping ahh, crazy used to just drop what I was doing to check it.
        copperx 4y ago
        What are the odds? A couple of hours after I posted my comment above I got a WhatsApp message saying that my aunt was in the ICU. She died minutes later. This stuff happens.
    - andrewljohnson 4y ago
      The issue for me is, for example, my wife drops my kid off for a camp and then the camp calls me in an emergency. So I can’t just only take notifications from known callers.
      - NRv9tR 4y ago
        You can do this. I do. Known numbers only and whitelist school, doctor, etc. If you really wanted to go further you could have a second number via google voice you only give to those places. Maybe even tie notifications on that to your calendar where you put your kids events.
        andrewljohnson 4y ago
        I just can’t… it might be some counselor’s random cell phone calling me. Plus the kids go to many camps per summer, and many activities during the year, so I’d be constantly updating my phone book even if not for the main issue.
        layer8 4y ago
        Kids survived perfectly fine in the past without their parents being available 24/7.
        happimess 4y ago
        Many summer camps require that you be available to retrieve your kid if e.g. they start showing Covid symptoms. I'd love to drop them off and forget about it, believe me.
        lodovic 4y ago
        But you can still let these people contact you, just not real-time. An hour or two delay should be perfectly acceptable. When they're on camp far away, does it really matter?
  - LeonM 4y ago
    Not sure about iOS, but with Android you can create exceptions for selected contacts in the do-not-disturb mode. I've added my family members to that exception list, and leave the phone on do-not-disturb mode 24/7.
    - ska 4y ago
      This works well for some people, but not universally as noted elsewhere in the thread. I guess it basically comes down to: how likely is a call from an unknown number to be important for me? It turns out this is wildly different for different lives.
  - Popeyes 4y ago
    If you have Android. Minimalist is very helpful in blocking app notifications.
  - mirekrusin 4y ago
    If wife is nice, she can be whitelisted, no?
  - jdshaffer 4y ago
    I have family and responsibilities, too. I've so far survived by allowing ONLY notifications from texts and phone calls. The key is that I'm able to ONLY give my text information and telephone information to family. I know others probably can't do that, but it works great for me.
  - patrulek 4y ago
    Humans lived centuries without instant messaging. Probably nothing wrong happen if you miss a call.
coolspot 4y ago
iOS focus mode added recently is a godsend!
shepherdjerred 4y ago
I disabled notifications for every app on my iPhone aside from Phone, Messages, and an app that tells me when I left my car door unlocked. I deleted all apps that distracted me, Instagram, Facebook, Firefox, Email, Slack, Facebook Messenger, Telegram. I check the ones I care about on my laptop/desktop. I deactivated my Instagram/Facebook because I kept logging back into them and scrolling for a bit -- not for very long, but any free moment I'd look for entertainment there. Any time I need some app, e.g. YouTube to show a video to a friend, or Uber to catch a ride, I'll download it and delete it once I'm done with my task. I've found that my screen time has gone down drastically. I used to spend 3 hours a day on Instagram, Facebook, Hacker News. Now I spend closer to .75-1.5 hours, with about 50% of that being very difficult to trim down because it's mostly useful (1:1 texting, finding music on Spotify, using Maps). I still have HN, xkcd, and the NYT for reading, but that's not much more than 15-20 minutes of my day, which I think is acceptable. I also put my phone in grayscale with reduced white point. This makes it much less enjoyable to read, and reduced white point makes it much more difficult to see/use, which reduces the time I spend. It's a lot of effort, but it's so easy to get sucked into your phone. Every little moment when I'm bored I'd pull it out and look for something. It's so much more valuable to be doing nothing, and to not be controlled by little notifications on my phone when something happens. I wish I could get an absolutely stripped down iPhone. I want Maps, Spotify, Messages, Phone, CarPlay, and that's about it. Maybe it would let me switch profiles for travel that has extra apps, or to some entertainment mode with a time-delay (e.g. if I wait 5 minutes I can open up Netflix). Something like the Light Phone [0] seems interesting, but not having CarPlay is a non-starter because I find it so useful. I suppose I could have two iPhones -- one for everyday carry that is barebones, and a second with the rest of my apps that I can keep in a drawer 95% of the day, but that sounds just so wasteful. [0]: https://www.thelightphone.com/ https://www.thelightphone.com/

ge96 4y ago

My phone is always on mute (no vibrate either) Only alarms to wake up

andrewljohnson 4y ago
Having a family and responsibilities made this infeasible for me. Most apps on my phone are denied notifications, but people can still text/call me.
- namaria 4y ago
  I also have family and responsibilities. But I am very careful whom I give unfettered access to my attention.
  - copperx 4y ago
    Everybody who depends on you directly (partner, children, parents, and extended family) should be on you VIP contact list and have direct access to you. I find that reduces my anxiety. I don't get distracted by notifications, or the thought that someone might be dying and trying to reach me.
    - ge96 4y ago
      Just commenting about phone calls I have stranger phone call anxiety and the other thing is spam/scam calls. Which thankfully my phone has been good at flagging/blocking. Regarding notifications I used to have phones that either had LED blinking indicators or sound/beeping ahh, crazy used to just drop what I was doing to check it.
      - copperx 4y ago
        What are the odds? A couple of hours after I posted my comment above I got a WhatsApp message saying that my aunt was in the ICU. She died minutes later. This stuff happens.
  - andrewljohnson 4y ago
    The issue for me is, for example, my wife drops my kid off for a camp and then the camp calls me in an emergency. So I can’t just only take notifications from known callers.
    - NRv9tR 4y ago
      You can do this. I do. Known numbers only and whitelist school, doctor, etc. If you really wanted to go further you could have a second number via google voice you only give to those places. Maybe even tie notifications on that to your calendar where you put your kids events.
      - andrewljohnson 4y ago
        I just can’t… it might be some counselor’s random cell phone calling me. Plus the kids go to many camps per summer, and many activities during the year, so I’d be constantly updating my phone book even if not for the main issue.
        layer8 4y ago
        Kids survived perfectly fine in the past without their parents being available 24/7.
        happimess 4y ago
        Many summer camps require that you be available to retrieve your kid if e.g. they start showing Covid symptoms. I'd love to drop them off and forget about it, believe me.
        lodovic 4y ago
        But you can still let these people contact you, just not real-time. An hour or two delay should be perfectly acceptable. When they're on camp far away, does it really matter?
- LeonM 4y ago
  Not sure about iOS, but with Android you can create exceptions for selected contacts in the do-not-disturb mode. I've added my family members to that exception list, and leave the phone on do-not-disturb mode 24/7.
  - ska 4y ago
    This works well for some people, but not universally as noted elsewhere in the thread. I guess it basically comes down to: how likely is a call from an unknown number to be important for me? It turns out this is wildly different for different lives.
- Popeyes 4y ago
  If you have Android. Minimalist is very helpful in blocking app notifications.
- mirekrusin 4y ago
  If wife is nice, she can be whitelisted, no?
- jdshaffer 4y ago
  I have family and responsibilities, too. I've so far survived by allowing ONLY notifications from texts and phone calls. The key is that I'm able to ONLY give my text information and telephone information to family. I know others probably can't do that, but it works great for me.
- patrulek 4y ago
  Humans lived centuries without instant messaging. Probably nothing wrong happen if you miss a call.

coolspot 4y ago

iOS focus mode added recently is a godsend!

shepherdjerred 4y ago

I disabled notifications for every app on my iPhone aside from Phone, Messages, and an app that tells me when I left my car door unlocked. I deleted all apps that distracted me, Instagram, Facebook, Firefox, Email, Slack, Facebook Messenger, Telegram. I check the ones I care about on my laptop/desktop. I deactivated my Instagram/Facebook because I kept logging back into them and scrolling for a bit -- not for very long, but any free moment I'd look for entertainment there. Any time I need some app, e.g. YouTube to show a video to a friend, or Uber to catch a ride, I'll download it and delete it once I'm done with my task. I've found that my screen time has gone down drastically. I used to spend 3 hours a day on Instagram, Facebook, Hacker News. Now I spend closer to .75-1.5 hours, with about 50% of that being very difficult to trim down because it's mostly useful (1:1 texting, finding music on Spotify, using Maps). I still have HN, xkcd, and the NYT for reading, but that's not much more than 15-20 minutes of my day, which I think is acceptable. I also put my phone in grayscale with reduced white point. This makes it much less enjoyable to read, and reduced white point makes it much more difficult to see/use, which reduces the time I spend. It's a lot of effort, but it's so easy to get sucked into your phone. Every little moment when I'm bored I'd pull it out and look for something. It's so much more valuable to be doing nothing, and to not be controlled by little notifications on my phone when something happens. I wish I could get an absolutely stripped down iPhone. I want Maps, Spotify, Messages, Phone, CarPlay, and that's about it. Maybe it would let me switch profiles for travel that has extra apps, or to some entertainment mode with a time-delay (e.g. if I wait 5 minutes I can open up Netflix). Something like the Light Phone [0] seems interesting, but not having CarPlay is a non-starter because I find it so useful. I suppose I could have two iPhones -- one for everyday carry that is barebones, and a second with the rest of my apps that I can keep in a drawer 95% of the day, but that sounds just so wasteful. [0]: https://www.thelightphone.com/ https://www.thelightphone.com/