Extinguish All Notifications

Notifications are designed to steal your attention.

Attention is your most valuable resource.

Extinguish all notifications.

Avoid in-app notification settings. You don’t need fine-grained notification control if you nuke all your notifications. Use your general OS notification settings.

No SMS. No Slack. No Signal or WhatsApp. No banners. No noises. Nothing.

Actually, phone calls are okay – emergencies happen. Protip: iOS and Android can filter out everything except repeated phone calls.

Your boss, wife, boyfriend, children, friends – they will survive.

Check your inboxes as frequently as necessary. Don’t exert willpower. Don’t rely on memory. Design a reminder system.

It’s easiest to pair notification-checks with naturally occuring events: workouts, water, meals, coffee, bathroom breaks, etc. Consistency is key.

I personally use nowify to set my cadences:

• every 40-60 minutes: Slack mentions and direct-messages
• every day: Slack channels, email, iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, reminders, Copilot
• every few days: scan all apps for notification badges