Chaotic notifications too?

I needed some peace and quiet one night for some deep work, and I was getting it, but I heard a notification. It wasn't from my phone, so I could only ignore it since my roommate wasn't in my room. Seconds later, there was another—same exact notification tone. Then there was another, and another, and another, and another... I became distracted each time and even grew livid.

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Apparently, the mobile data connection had been left on, and what I was hearing were notifications from every nook and cranny of the phone. I mean, WhatsApp group chats, Telegram airdrop group chats, Facebook notifications, battery level, and everything!

In my mind, I wondered how he could tell them apart. I never would. What was most concerning to me, though, was that I just couldn't concentrate. So you know what I did? I stood up from my desk and went over to turn off the damn phone. The roommate wasn't even around to attend to them anyway, but I was, and attend to them did I!

When I look over the notification panels of some people and I see all manner of things from every app on the phone, it makes me beg the question, "Do you even see well with these here?"

What most people haven't realised is that you can actually customise your notifications in an efficient way so that you get notified about the right things at the right time and even know exactly what you're being notified of.

I mean, I do understand how incessant notifications happen in the first place. By default, pretty much all the apps on your phone can send you notifications and play sounds when they do. Most likely, you allowed them to when you first installed them—at least for Android users. You can customise the notifications sometime afterwards to fit what you need from it exactly.

Whenever I find a notification I don't or never need, I immediately go through its settings from the notification panel and simply turn it off or adjust its priority. That way, I don't get a notification each time there's a promo offer in my bank app or something. I just want to know when someone has sent me millions of money.

Another thing I do is pick different notifications for different applications that their notifications are important to me.

Discord DMs sound different than server messages. WhatsApp group chats also sound different from DMs. On WhatsApp, specific people have custom notification tone, so I don't miss when they send a message. I have a similar thing with many other applications as well. And then there's a general notification tone for pretty much anything that wouldn't be crucial.

It's pretty easy and quick to set up. So please stop receiving notifications like "How to lose 200 kg over night with this drink" from Chrome or notifications from everything, so much so that you don't even know what's important or not. E-mails, for example, should sound different, especially if it's for work. You don't want to miss your salary review when it comes.

The thing about ironing out your notifications is that it's not something you do one time and have it all simplified out, and then you enjoy your efficient notifications setup forever. You may need to revisit some apps and update some settings based on changes in your needs, and there'll also be new apps in the future to set up as well. So it's something I do every once in a while, especially when my notifications panel is getting clogged up again.

There's nothing I can or will do if I hear you have a ton of indistinct notifications in just a minute, but I know that it would irk me if I had that. This is probably my most annoying digital pet peeve. If you relate, you're welcome to share with us in the Digital Lifestyle community.