Zero to Shipped

- Master Fullstack Development and finally ship a product

Better

I'm not always successful at improving my habits and behaviors, but I'll never stop trying. I made this page for two reasons: to feel accountable, and to help other people who might want to adopt some of these habits and techniques.

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🤫

Disable most notifications

Started: 2019

Strength

Actions

  • Go to Settings on your phone and disable the notifications that bother you the most
  • As notifications arrive, disable them directly from the notification center until you're down to a few apps
  • Mute most contacts (people can call when something is really urgent)
  • Manually check apps on your own schedule
  • Uninstall apps that have website alternatives, check and keep up with those apps on a desktop computer

iOS is absolutely the worst when it comes to managing notifications.

 

It's like the iOS notification center was built by developers who never got a notification in their life so they were like "LGTM, the clock looks pretty with that wallpaper so ship it, add a //TODO and we'll fix it later".

 

Blows my mind how bad it is. What also blows my mind is that most people keep all of their notifications on, including the ones that someone liked their photo or a tweet. How the fuck is that urgent information?

 

I realized that if I don't disable most of the notifications in iOS, I won't be able to use my phone as a utility device.

 

I'm not sure how this magical process happens, but a simple notification about the air pollution can end up with an ultra focused research on the downfall of Britney's career.

 

Oh, you wanted to be focused for a second? Cute! How about your screen turning on to tell you the super urgent and important information that the price of Dogecoin has dropped by a whopping 0.0035%. OH NO, MY SAVINGS !!!!11

 

"Uhm, Kitze, haven't you heard of Do Not Disturb or keeping your phone away from you when you want to be focused?" - people who don't use DND or put their phone away

 

You have to be ruthless when it comes to disabling notifications. Anything that doesn't deserve your immediate attention needs to be turned off. And when you think about it, that's most notifications.

 

To clarify, when I say most notifications, I really mean it. You don't need 99% of them. It took me a while to get where I am now.

 

The only notifications I get nowadays are from:

 
  • My girlfriend who lives with me (and who rarely texts me anything except "music is too loud", "lunch is ready", and "I'm having an affair", all other contacts are muted)
  • My bank (in/out transactions)
  • My todo/reminders/calendar apps
  • Home automation notifications (reacting to a water leak immediately might be a tad more effective than checking it during a "Check home for leaks" calendar event)

For this to work, I have to check certain apps manually, but that can be only a few times per day or week (depending on the app), and it can be done when I decide so, on my own time, instead of the phone pulling me in a rabbit hole 100 times per day.

 

P.S Pizza Hut developers, if you're reading this, and probably you are, WHY THE FUCK DO I NEED ANY REMINDER NOTIFICATIONS FROM YOUR GODDAMN APP. I can be a responsible adult and consistently destroy my health with a quattro formaggi myself, thank you very much!

 

A note about Android

Android phones have great built-in settings and third-party apps for managing notifications.

 

If you're an Android user, and you actually care about these types of apps, it might make sense to keep some of the notifications on.

 

For example, there was a useful app (can't remember the name for the life of me) that pauses most of your notifications and delivers them in bulk a few times in the day, so you don't constantly check your phone on every ding.

 

Sadly, most Android users never bother to explore the powerful third-party apps that are not available on iOS, because the main reason they got an Android is "fuck Apple, I'm not a sheep so why would I want a stable, smooth, constantly updated, and privacy-oriented OS" 🤷‍♂️️