Can't seem to find the time? You can, here's how

Notifications are an addiction many of us don’t even know that we have and it’s ruining your chance at becoming someone extraordinary. This isn’t meant to be provocative; it’s simply the truth and I’m about to give you some tough love.

The average person receives 45 push notifications each day from their apps, 85 texts per day, and 120 emails per day. That’s a total of 250 buzzes on your phone or your email and that doesn’t even include the number of Slacks or Teams messages you get each day. That’s 250 times that your attention can be pulled away from what’s in front of you. Let’s assume you spend about 5 seconds viewing it, that adds up to over 2.5 hours per week looking at notifications. 

If that doesn’t seem too bad, let’s put it this way: based on the number of notifications, you’re receiving new information every 6 minutes which interrupts a flow to literally any task you’re performing. Still maybe not too bad, right? Ok, so you might look at that notification for about 5 seconds, but your brain probably thinks about it for at least 30 seconds whether it’s contextualizing an email, interpreting a text message, or deciding to open or not open the app that’s popping up.

That adds up to over 14 hours per week–almost TWO whole work days.

And you wonder why you can’t seem to “find the time” to get shit done.

The best part about this is that the fix is quite simple: turn off your notifications. And I know what you’re already thinking But what if I miss an important one?!  You won’t. I’ll tell you why in a moment, but first I want to point out that this reaction is a symptom of false urgency that our world has become accustomed to. You don’t owe shit to anyone in an instant. Notifications are other people’s agendas that are competing for priority in your day, so if you feel like you can’t get anything done for yourself, this is why.

The simplest fix to make sure you don’t miss anything important is to have dedicated slots for checking notifications and it sure as hell isn’t first thing in the morning and not even when you start your work day. Start at 10:00 am local time and slot 5 minutes to power through the pile up. Read, act, and delete at rapid fire. Do the same thing at 3:00 pm. Do your final check at 7:00 pm for personal only. We just reduced the mental load of notifications in your head by SEVENFOLD. 

By doing this practice, you get 12 hours back each week that you would have spent distracted by thinking about your notifications.

Once I realized that I could get 26 entire 24 hour days of mental load back each year, this changed the game for me. Essentially, this equates to an entire 3 months of 8 hour work days that I magically won back. You’re not as busy as you think, it’s just that the mental load of your notifications takes away an entire quarter of productive and inspiring thoughts. 

What could you do this year with almost an entire month of headspace if you weren’t catering to your addiction?