Tag: Notification Detox

Notification Detox

A couple of days back I had a catchup coffee with a long-time friend.  Whilst sipping our coffee’s catching up on news since our last such meet-up he suddenly interrupts me and says “watch this” An instant later he answers a call on what I can only describe as a the closest phone I’ve seen resembling a Nokia 3310 in many a moon.   It didn’t have an immediate impact on me, but a couple of days later I suddenly caught myself day-dreaming about this event – was he really onto something? He’s magic combination was this “Nokia 3310” together with an iPad Mini (GSM).  The phone he keeps ever present in all activities, but the iPad is only around when he has bags to carry it.

Whether by accident, or pure genius I decided this form of hardcore separation may have its merits. A form of notification detox.  This impacted me to such an extent that I have purchased my own beloved Nokia 130, capable of making calls, sending and receiving SMS messages, and very little else. No beeps and no flashing to inform me that someone who could have done something or that  something is apparently so important that I need to know about immediately. No, in fact a whole lot less noise and a tremendous scaling back on disruptions during the day is what I’ve experienced, delightful!

Some other interesting reading on a related topic is definitely The Information Diet by Clay Johnson.