My mother has been complaining about how the notifications from different apps, messages, and WhatsApp make her less productive and more stressed. Today, I was trying to set up my mother’s iPhone to make it less distracting for her. After 2 cups of Turkish coffee, I had the usual dopamine rush, resulting in this blog idea.
In this blog post, I want to talk about how systems and tips worked for me to achieve digital peace in this digital world. I, too, was a victim of a constant shower of notifications and media. The constant urge to check my Instagram feed while spending precious time with my family and friends… It was intolerable at some point because I couldn’t spend any time committing to actions that would make my life better in every way imaginable.
Whenever I got depressed or anxious for some reason, which life never runs down such reasons, I automatically fell back into my habits of scrolling through Instagram and watching 12 different YouTube videos at the same time. In the meanwhile, of course, I didn’t neglect my WhatsApp duties, where I either initiated texts or responded to whatever soon-to-be-irrelevant messages.
Okay, I’m not going to try to convince you that you shouldn’t do all of those things. In fact, I believe you should do some of these things to keep up with the demands of the modern world, just in moderation. Otherwise, I would sound like the harsh principle dude in the Another Brick in the Wall song (“If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding!”).
Instead of arguing against why you should make these changes, I want to talk about what I did and what worked. Now, for the first time in my life, for 1.5 years, I don’t check my Instagram regularly. I have a very competitive GPA alongside a demanding research internship, with only 3-4 hours of solid work, 4-5 days a week on average. Although I am way past the regular student age (while still being a student), I believe that these techniques and books will help students and white-collar workers a lot in these days of never-ending digital shitstorms.
Most of these techniques are inspired by the book Digital Minimalism and Deep Work by Carl Newport. This dude became an MIT-graduate computer science academic-publishment-machine professor while writing (and publishing!) 5-6 nonfiction books about productivity since he was 21 years old. I know what you think. This man has some horsepower in his brain. Why the fuck all the things he suggests work for your case? It’s because they are painstakingly obvious, easy techniques that anybody could benefit from. In the worst case, you improve your quality of life by 1%, which is 100% better than 0% (I’m not a math major, but you get the point).
You don’t have to publish 120 books while getting a PhD in one of the most competitive schools in the world. HOWEVER…, I am positive that you could at least do that thing you have been contemplating doing since Jesus was born. You know it, I know it. The moment you read this sentence, your conscience smiled like a smart-ass first, then threw at you that thing that you were ignoring for so long like a ninja.
Let’s go to the tips and systems that improved my efficiency and efficacy (I.e., actually producing results that you aimed at with less time & space).
1- Turn off all of the notifications of non-crucial apps.
The most obvious one. You don’t need that Zara notification. I’ve been there, you’ve been there, my partner camped there last year. Even the notion of notification is a deeply enrouted survival mechanism. Why do you think the notifications are always in red?
Let’s imagine. You live in a cage with the rest of your community. There are literally tens of lions and other god-knows-what savage animals trying to get you because they are hungry. You are also hungry because your cousins only hunted 210 grams of meat last week. You’ve eaten so much blackberry that your stool has a color that is blacker than the absolute night itself. The information means survival. You need to know which animals are on patrol for you and which ones you should be on patrol for. If that’s not enough, you need to think about your social status so that you don’t get excluded and left behind as a punishment. Both physically and psychologically, it’s a survival game. You need information, which, guess what, comes with notifications. Our brain has evolved to capture our attention immediately when there’s a (social) notification. Particularly, the color red has a historical significance. It has been representing danger for hundreds if not thousands of years. It’s the color of the blood, the fire, the anger, and so on.
So, the entire system of notifications is just a simple technique that utilizes our deepest survival needs to command your attention. Attention makes money; I don’t need to tell you that, of course. You want to change your life, protect what’s yours, and make something of yourself while you have the chance to do so. Life is both long and short. It will give you constant struggles and occasionally some happy moments. Do you really want to subdue these unnecessary notifications? Do you want to waste your time with constant distractions?
I’m not suggesting closing everything down and living like a digital monk. You do you. I’m sure that there are some apps that are significant for your rest, recovery, daily hassles, and entertainment. That is perfectly normal. That is needed. But neither the world nor you need to grab that piece of cloth before those Batman-like Zara zombies buy it before you at dawn.
A tip: you can schedule your notifications so that the apps you desire can send them to you once a day/week, etc. Even the high-priority mail app can be scheduled to give you updates 5 times on your selection so that it doesn’t interfere with your work but still gives you enough time to catch up with everything.
2- Get a mat screen protector
I’ll keep this one very short. We have a monkey brain. It loves shiny things. Phone screens and app colors are shiny things. The more colorful and attractive they are, the more your monkey brain wants to get a piece of them. Activating grayscale mode on your phone is proven to increase your well-being and decrease your stress levels (look at this research paper for more info). If you’re up for it, go for it. I’m not a psychopath, so I have a mat screen protector (the fact that I’m thinking about this stuff might make me a plain crazy person, though). Mat screen protectors automatically dim the colors of everything, and they decrease the reflections on sunny days. It will, therefore, make some sense in your monkey brain.
3- Remove all social media apps
Just kidding. I’ve been trying to do that, but I’ve been failing miserably. I’m not a commando yet. The best thing that worked for me was to use my phone’s web browser to use them when I needed them. Apps know how your brain works. You don’t have complete control over them. The mobile browser adds friction, and they are slow as fuck. To catch up with DMs and see what my loved ones are doing, I use a web browser. After each use, I remove my entire history like a sadistic person, just to give my future self a cute middle finger and some hard times logging in again.
A tip: Scheduling a weekly time slot on your calendar for infinite scrolling can balance things out. You can still catch up with your friends, communicate with your community, and get that cocaine-like high from ASMR TikTok.
4- Don’t stress yourself over your screen time, but take a look at it.
So that you can see how many hours you are wasting each day. Not all screen time is evil, but most are. If you check your screen time constantly while you are doing nothing to decrease it, you will be disappointing yourself over and over again. You don’t need another disappointment in your life, at least not from yourself. It decreases your self-confidence and your sense of control over your actions. If you haven’t already done it, just taking a look at it might give you the spark you need to start a small fire.
5- Use three types of “Do not Disturb” Mode.
Yes, exactly three. You don’t need a separate focus mode for each activity you’re doing. Life is more chaotic than this kind of order. Instead, I found three types of modes are enough for most situations. It might be iOS-specific, but I’m sure all the other Android devices have these features long before Apple’s phones.
First, set an “Absolutely Do not Disturb” mode. No app, no person, even the Pope, can’t reach you. This is for those moments of tasks or events that require your absolute attention. Although you’re probably not going to use it all the time based on various personal circumstances, you’ll probably need that silent time in your life from time to time.
Second, set a “Do Not Disturb” mode. Here, repeated calls and your time-sensitive app notifications are allowed. It’s kind of a middle way where you don’t feel anxiety over not being reachable and missing out on very important calls or calendar events. If there’s an emergency, you can set an auto-respond message, informing that 2nd consecutive call will not be silenced.
Third, set a “Might Disturb” mode. Your favorite contacts can reach you, time-sensitive notifications are on, and repeated calls are also turned on. If there’s a social gathering, related people can be added to the list. If you are in the gathering, you can also focus on the people who are physically in front of you to build stronger relationships and actual human connections. I use this mode often during vacations or weekends.
6- Most importantly, work deeply
I don’t want to make this blog any longer, but before I finish, I want to talk about the notion of “deep work” thrown by Carl Newport in his book “Deep Work.” I highly recommend reading this book. It might be elitist for your life circumstances, especially if you are not academic or white-collar, but if you are in a phase of acquiring some skills or learning new things in your free time, the book is still worth looking at.
The most important lesson I would share from this book that changed my entire workflow is to just work deeply. No distractions, no phones nearby. No human connection. No cafes (although some people prefer it, but scientifically, it’s not recommended for most). When I sit down and work, I just work. Nothing less, nothing more. Nothing fancy, either. It’s just about doing the tasks that you are supposed to do.
There are some extra psychology-based tips and techniques that would help you, but that’s for another blog post. I’m tired, and this text became too long anyway.