

Ask HN: Does your productivity suffer because of too many phone notifications? - arey_abhishek


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awjr
Put your phone on silent and leave it in your bag. Look at the notifications
each app is broadcasting and turn them into silent notifications. Optionally
have an override when somebody important tries to call you through your phone.

You might as well ask, does Skype/Hangouts/Slack/Email etc on your work
machine interfere with your productivity? Yes if you let it.

One of the reasons I like Full Screen mode on OSX. It removes distractions.

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arey_abhishek
On the desktop there aren't more than a couple of apps which create
notifications and the frequency is much lower than on a mobile phone. I would
say there was a problem of too many email notifications and Slack is just
compounding it. :/

I found this app on android called (Off Time)
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.offtime.kit](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.offtime.kit)

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Gustomaximus
I generally turn off non-calendar notifications. For work email I use the Nine
app which has a nice VIP option so I only get notified for messages by a few
key people. Otherwise I get to my email when I open it by choice. I also
enable silent time so all non-alarm notifications are muted from 10pm to 7am.

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arey_abhishek
I just found this article as well
[http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/27/zombification-from-
notific...](http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/27/zombification-from-
notifications-how-to-fix-the-problem-of-too-many-alerts/)

Is there any app that can fix this?

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EnderMB
Nope, not really. I usually check my phone if I get a notification, and once
I'm done with my phone I get back to my work. If I'm swamped and I've not
received a call I'll leave my phone until I'm at a natural break.

Is it really that much of a problem for people?

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tmaly
I deleted apps such as facebook from my phone. This solved most of my issues.
I turned off notifications on twitter.

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kevinherron
Nope... self control aside, I deny requests for notification privileges from
all apps.

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mahringer_a
Anyone got experience how this changes with a smartwatch? More or less
distraction?

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logiclabs
I use a Pebble watch. Not sure if I find it to be that much less of a
distraction, but it certainly allows you to be more responsive to the
notifications with very little action, as you can quickly see the them in a
near zero-touch way. I've found it better for me than my phone where I need a
complete context switch to get my phone out to see the message (and unlock it,
if neccessary). I also use Pushbullet when at my desktop, so phone
notifications are displayed on my monitor and allows you to respond to things
like SMS.

I'd probably be happier and less distracted if I was "polling" for messages,
but I don't trust myself to do that regularly enough so having low friction
notifications suits me better.

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benlaud
sure. I won't allow any app send notification with sound / vibration, I will
read it when I am free.

If you have any urgent issue, please phone me. Asking me by instance messenger
do not mean I will response instantly.

