So about two months ago I decided to disable all notifications on my phone and computer: so if you have been wondering why I don’t respond as quickly as I normally do, that’s why. Right now, in order to know if someone messaged me or sent me a funny Instagram reel means I have to decided to open the app/website and check.
How do I do that?
On my iPhone it looks like this (screenshot).
So yeah, I have this on pretty much all the time. Only a few people can bug me, and only a few apps can: Reminders and Calendar. No badges. It’s pretty much the same on my MacBook too.
Since I have been taking this time off, using my time without distractions has been pretty paramount to doing what I need to do. I also did a ton of re-reading of my journals and I found distractions to be a major contributor of stress and lack of activity towards what I’m doing.
Social Apps
I also don’t have social apps on my iPhone. Social apps, while I like using them, have suddenly decided to introduce Reels, and since then apps (especially on my Phone) turn into massive black holes of addictive scrolling of video content. I hate it. I only use these apps on my computer where I can control (somewhat) hiding Reels using a user-script to display:none them out of sight.
X (Twitter) is probably the main app I use: but ever since I got back on X posting doesn’t even seem to reach anyone. I’m considering just stopping using all of them: X, Instagram, Facebook—etc—I’m tired of being behind an algorithm. But I haven’t decided…