Interesting article from Chris Hannah on how he manages notifications on iOS. It can be hard to decide which notifications should be enabled and which should be disabled on your phone. I have a lot of apps, most of which produce notifications on a daily basis. I spend far too much time checking my phone. To help combat this, I always leave my phone in Do Not Disturb mode while at work, which ensures that my phone won’t wake each time I get a notification. This is a help, but doesn’t solve the problem.

In general, this is how I prioritise notifications:

• Important: Calls, SMS/iMessage, Whatsapp
• Not Important: All social media, games, RSS, personal Email

Based on the above, I have adjusted how I get notifications on my phone. Anything in the important category gets pushed to my phone immediately, and anything in the not important must be looked up manually which prevents my phone from lighting up throughout the day. This is a small change but it’s definitely noticeable. It’s not going to cure my smartphone addiction, but it can surely help me get back some of those wasted minutes.