Turn off your notifications! I dare you! Turn off the badges, banners, sounds, lock screen, previews etc. Turn it all off!
I bet you are having an anxiety attack right now just thinking about this right? It will be okay. It’s not like you are going to forget to check your email. Maybe you just wont check it every 15 seconds. Is that such a bad thing?
This summer at #NPC2017 (National Principals Conference) there was a challenge started to put a picture of your most important people on your home screen. When you turn on your phone (actually I think our phones just turn on when we look at them right now:):) your home screen is that picture, then you have to swipe left to get to your apps. Now THAT makes me have an anxiety attack!
My phone is not a picture frame! I do not need my phone to remind me who my most important people are. My phone is for work and getting things done and connecting. Now that I have offended almost all my PLN principals, let me explain. It would take me FOREVER to move all my apps around off the home screen, to another screen and move the 2nd screen apps somewhere else. No. I could not accept that challenge.
If any of you are still reading here is my thinking:
- Decide if there is an app or two you have to leave on. (Messages because I have kids. Facebook pages because parents contact me there sometimes. Facebook because I manage a new principal group so I had to turn those badges back on.)
- Turn off ALL other badges. Those red circles with the number of notifications waiting.
- You can actually leave previews on or banners as long as they go away easily and quickly.
- You are not going to forget to check your email, or Voxer, or Instagram, or Twitter. You’re just not going forget. Try it. It has become habit so you know you are going to check at some point.
- Messages clarification – I do not get a lot of text messages. At least I don’t think I do but I don’t really have anything to compare it to.
If none of the above apply to you maybe you can just turn off your work email at night. Yes, my work email is OFF my phone at night. I check it first thing in the morning when I wake up except on the weekends. Yep, I am guilty of emailing my staff on the weekend at times. They don’t have to read it until Monday morning. I just have to get it done when I have time. If it’s super important I can send a text through Remind.
Who is going to take the challenge! Let me know if you take the notifications off or turn off your work email. Regardless if your successful or not I’d love to hear how it worked out for you.
