The Day I Turned off Notifications

Today's student guest post is by Erin Jackman.  She is in her third year of the MDiv program.  Erin lives in Middleton, NS and serves as Social Rep on ADCSA.

When it comes to technology/social media, I find myself in between two generations. The generation who thinks it is neat, but doesn’t depend on it and the generation who depends on it as if it’s their lifeline.  Every once in a while I will go on a social media free weekend. Last year I went for half a semester without FB & Twitter so I could focus on school without the distraction.  This year, I am
keeping the ADC Facebook/Twitter/Google+ accounts up to date, and as Social Rep for ADCSA I have decided not to take such long “fasts” from social media sites.

While having coffee with a friend one day, we were chatting about social media sites and how distracting they are for me. He told me that he turned his notifications off. What? Turn off my notifications? Never hear the sound of someone sending me a tweet, favouriting a tweet, pinning one of my pins, commenting on a status, sending me a FB msg? How in the world can you do that? Well it is actually quite easy.

Here’s how:

1. You pick up the device or devices you use most often. 
2. Go to each app and turn off notifications/sounds.
3. You enjoy a noise free day.

The results will be different for everyone. You might face serious withdrawal, and finding yourself wanting to check FB every ten minutes. Or it might be the easiest thing you have ever done. In the end, you might think, “Why didn’t I do this years ago?”  Of course if you don’t have a problem with this distraction, then this post is probably not for you.

One day I wrote Danny Zacharias an email and told him about what I was going to write about. He replied with, “Something I suggested in my book. I'm glad to hear you listened....6 months later ;-)”  Oh, right. Yes, I read that book. Maybe I need to read it again. I’m talking about Surviving and Thriving in Seminary. So, I opened it up on Kindle and skimmed the chapter on Productivity Over Procrastination. Here are a couple things he says on choosing to turn off distractions.

“There are precious few times when there are actual emergencies that require your immediate attention.”

So when someone “likes” a status or a picture or writes a comment it doesn’t need an immediate response. I knew that!

“We are choosing to distract ourselves because the majority of what distracts us is entirely within our control.”  

Yes, it’s in my control. It is my choice to check my email, FB, Twitter, and Instagram a lot (I’m not confessing to how many times a day). Oh, and every once in a while Pinterest, Google+, my blog stats and reader. Not to mention the links to YouTube and you end up watching another video that leads to 5 more and an hour later you wonder where the time went.

Danny also suggests Apps that can help you with these distractions and other options for keeping them from taking up your time. If you struggle with this, it’s a good read.

I know you are all wondering how it turned out for me, turning of notifications. I took the steps mentioned above. All was quiet. I had my homework in front of me, and my laptop open. I was reading, and it wasn’t long before I wondered what was happening on Facebook. Why wasn’t I hearing anything from my phone? No, I’m not going to pick it up!

I did pick it up eventually and checked Facebook and email and Twitter and Instagram. Then an hour later I put my phone back down. At least this time I checked on my terms and not on the terms of the sound of the phone. The next challenge is not to stay on as long.

I checked my phone two more times that day. I stayed on my phone a little bit less each time. It was a great exercise to learn that I don’t have to be controlled by the beeps and vibrates of my phone. I can turn notifications off and be in control instead of the notifications controlling me.  I am getting in the habit of leaving my phone in another room while I do school work (another tip by Danny). And I’m trying to be more conscious of how I use my phone when I am around others.

Yes, one day, I turned off my notifications, and I never turned them back on.