Do Not Disturb

By on January 7, 2013

Do you remember when you turned your cell phone off at night?

I remember holding the power button and turning off my cell phone for years before I went to bed. Then I got an iPhone, and when I turned it off to charge it at night, it turned back on. It’s stayed on, in one form or another, since then.

The danger of being always connected is that you’re always on. There’s no down time. No solitude. Sometimes you’re lonely, but you’re never alone.

I’m not here to live my life for other people. I hope you aren’t either.

To combat always being on, I turned on the Do Not Disturb feature of my phone from 10 pm to 7 am, daily.

  • I don’t have to worry about work trying to distract me at the last minute.
  • I sleep peacefully knowing that nothing but a true emergency will wake me up.
  • I start my day without a plethora of notifications bombarding me the moment I wake up.

It’s a small change, but it been a good way for me to start my year. Less noise. Less notifications. Less distractions.

How are you filtering your notifications in 2013?

6 Responses to Do Not Disturb

  1. Shelli Martineau January 7, 2013 at 12:52 pm #

    Ok, I’ll be that guy. You’ve got a typo. Shouldn’t it read “your notifications in 2013″? ;)

    • Jay January 7, 2013 at 4:55 pm #

      Nah. Why worry about the future when you can rewrite the past? ;-)

  2. Hannah January 7, 2013 at 5:35 pm #

    I haven’t seen a use for the ‘Do Not Disturb’ function, because I just have my phone on Silent all the time anyway, and only a phone call vibrates.

    • Jay January 7, 2013 at 8:57 pm #

      Vibrations distract me. Hell, anything that blinks, moves or makes noise distracts me. It’s a wonder I get anything done.

  3. David Gerbino | @dmgerbino January 7, 2013 at 10:01 pm #

    I do the same thing as @Hannah, my Android phone is always on silent (calls vibrateunless I am in meeting). If the blinking notification lights bother me during the day or night, I just turn the phone over. It is the turning off part that seems so difficult.

    I have experienced some great hyper connected conversations with people I connect will all over the world. That kind of connectedness has been known to cause me a few hours of lost sleep over the years.

    • Jay January 8, 2013 at 6:39 pm #

      I’m considering moving all technology out of the bedroom. I’m not sure it will work though. I love reading on my iPad too much.

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