The one change that worked: I set my phone to ‘do not disturb’ three years ago – and have never looked back
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I can't emphasize how important it is for you to control your phone, especially notifications. Every notification is literally a mind hijacking attempt. Regardless of the type of notification, it's something that disrupts our thinking and our flow.
Some of them are necessary—but most aren't.
All the native apps will of course try to get as much permission from you as possible, including notifications. Don't allow this permission freely.
Get really strict about which apps need to send you notifications, and when. Take it from a dude who used to give free reign to all apps for notifications.
Once I started thinking in a more digitally minimalistic way, it made a huge difference. Running GrapheneOS actually helped with this a lot. But you don't need GOS to do this and feel the difference.
I got some notifications turned on, but most of em are silent. So they still get delivered, but they're not time-sensitive. They'll be there when I check my phone next. I don't need em interrupting whatever I was doing or thinking.
TL;DR: Be strict about which notifications you allow, and when. It'll do wonders for your thinking, productivity, and mental health.
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This should be the default on new phones. I enabled it the first time I got a call at 3AM from one of my clients. Many people just have no respect.
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You have a GOOGLE phone?!?! Does it notify ICE when you’re near an immigrant? JK
Google hardware is actually solid. Just don't run Google software.
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I do this to my mom as a way to be very low-contact with her. It's a huge relief.
I used to love texting when it was only a handful of friends but these days I hate the pressure of it being ever-present in my pocket and the social expectation to answer in a relatively timely manner. (This has led me to being a horrible texter, sorry everyone.)
I miss the old days of AOL instant messenger. Your online status did all the heavy lifting to communicate when you had some free time and felt like chatting.
Your online status did all the heavy lifting to communicate when you had some free time and felt like chatting.
A lot of modern messengers implement a similar feature but I disable them or manually set it to "away" perpetually. Using DND makes much more sense. I just tell people they can message me literally any time they want but I will not see or respond to them until later.
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Your online status did all the heavy lifting to communicate when you had some free time and felt like chatting.
A lot of modern messengers implement a similar feature but I disable them or manually set it to "away" perpetually. Using DND makes much more sense. I just tell people they can message me literally any time they want but I will not see or respond to them until later.
Very different these days. The beauty of the status bubbles and messengers of past is that you would catch each other when you both had time and desire to chat and then you'd have a back and forth conversation until one of you disengaged. You also almost never have people sending offline messages. It was more akin to an in-person interaction where you're either visibly there and someone can approach and talk to you in real time or you aren't.
Texting is generally of a blend between real-time messenging (but you can't tell if they're available) and short form email where everyone interacts differently and has their own ideas about "proper" etiquette. It's probably somewhat cultural but in my experience, people just use messaging apps in the exact same way as they would text, so status bubbles don't mean much.
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I’m probably a nightmare to get hold of at a moment’s notice – and should never, ever be someone’s In Case of Emergency, much to my partner’s chagrin.
Any phone will allow you to still receive notifications for a select contacts or numbers that call repeatedly with DND on so that's something she's chosen which I would be offended by if I was her partner, especially considering they have two young children.
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I’m probably a nightmare to get hold of at a moment’s notice – and should never, ever be someone’s In Case of Emergency, much to my partner’s chagrin.
Any phone will allow you to still receive notifications for a select contacts or numbers that call repeatedly with DND on so that's something she's chosen which I would be offended by if I was her partner, especially considering they have two young children.
Most allow you to also nominate VIP contacts that always get through, he should dump her
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iOS also has a nice feature where if you get called by the same number twice in a short period of time it will let the second call through.
The pessimist in me knows it’s just a matter of time until robo callers figure that one out and start double calling, but it is nice peace of mind for now.
A lot of them already do call twice in a row, thanks apple.
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I love scheduled and automation based DND, except that about twice per year, SOMETHING SOMEWHERE updates and causes my alarm to be silenced by DND, despite having my clock app exempted from every possible silencing mechanism I can find.
For the life of me, I can't understand why that would ever be a useful behavior, let along default one.
Lucky for me, I have a pretty robust internal clock, but Holy Fuck is that annoying.
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Am I the only one that just ignores calls and texts that I don't want to respond to immediately or ever? I never have my ring volume up and I've muted almost all of my group chats, so only individual messages get through. My Pixel also does call screening which blocks a lot of trash from getting to me, and I keep space in my VM for when I have important calls get through that I either can't or don't want to answer.
Yes, me too. My phone is always silent and with Do Not Disturb on. Only few family contacts can get through, and only with a phone call.
I don't even know what's the sound of the notifications of my phone. It's blissful.
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Am I the only one that just ignores calls and texts that I don't want to respond to immediately or ever? I never have my ring volume up and I've muted almost all of my group chats, so only individual messages get through. My Pixel also does call screening which blocks a lot of trash from getting to me, and I keep space in my VM for when I have important calls get through that I either can't or don't want to answer.
Ignoring a text that "I can answer later" is actually what hits me with most cognitive charge :
My current balance is :
- To never give notification permission except when it is necessary for the core goal of the application.
- Automatically enable do not disturb from 11pm until alarm clock.
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I just turned off notifications for everything, except Signal and banking apps. Most convenient solution IMO.
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I appreciate that Android changed from an opt-out to an opt-in model when it comes to notification permissions, but it's still not enough.
I can't believe the mobile OS world became so much worse than actual computing. What a corporate hell scape. -
I appreciate that Android changed from an opt-out to an opt-in model when it comes to notification permissions, but it's still not enough.
I can't believe the mobile OS world became so much worse than actual computing. What a corporate hell scape.Tbh not surprised. In 2012 I got my first smartphone, it ran Android. At first I thought it was just like a PC. Within half an hour I was fed up at how useless it was.
Can't even open a terminal window and apt install apache, what a load of junk.
Tried a pinephone and that is almost perfect but it struggled with SMS. If that was more reliable I think it would be the perfect phone.
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All my phones have always been on DnD, I don't even know how my ringtone sounds.
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I've had mine on vibrate for years. Texting doesn't trigger it, only calls. It's been great.
I look at my phone only when I'm ready to look at it. -
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Headlines like this are annoying AF. You wouldn't want your doctor keeping their phone on DND 24/7.
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I've had mine on vibrate for years. Texting doesn't trigger it, only calls. It's been great.
I look at my phone only when I'm ready to look at it.Hmm maybe I should try this
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Headlines like this are annoying AF. You wouldn't want your doctor keeping their phone on DND 24/7.
Your doctor has a work phone that is available only during hours.
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I’m probably a nightmare to get hold of at a moment’s notice – and should never, ever be someone’s In Case of Emergency, much to my partner’s chagrin.
Any phone will allow you to still receive notifications for a select contacts or numbers that call repeatedly with DND on so that's something she's chosen which I would be offended by if I was her partner, especially considering they have two young children.
I keep Do Not Disturb on most of the time and my wife can contact me at any time. Her and a few others are flagged as exceptions.
