🪤 Notifications

Life is meant to be lived—uninterrupted

I just got back from a work retreat at a beautiful camping ground in the northeast US. Every morning I took a bike ride out to the ocean, and all week I heard the sounds of nature—birds, animals, the wind rushing through my windows and...Slack notifications?

It was appalling to see how my colleagues lived. Their phones were always buzzing and they complained about their constant connection and confusion while on the job. The mere accounts of their lives tortured me...and yet, I've lived it as well.

So let's talk about that pervasive nuisance, my mortal enemy—notifications.

Notifications and the Flow State

Interruptions to your flow state are deadly. They introduce 'attentional residue' that lingers long after you've finished whatever task you were called to do.

Flow—the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.

—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

For me, it takes about 10–20 minutes to really get back into a flow state if I am interrupted with a task. That includes recreating the original context (same room, same computer setup), reminding myself of the big picture and the particular details I am to focus on, and perhaps even another mental warmup.

That's insane.

Do the math. If you get two notifications per hour, you will spend the entire day just trying to get back to an optimal level of work.

But more than that, what does a notification signify? Whether it be a text from a loved one, a slack message from a colleague, or an email from your favorite Substack writer (😘), there is usually something needed from you. And you will feel the desire to stop what you are doing and help. Especially if what you are doing right now is cognitively intense and you would rather be doing anything else.

So let's prevent that temptation from ever arising.

"Wow, notifications suck. Why do they exist?"

Ew

This towering figure of pure male might is why your zoomer nephew can't make eye-contact with you anymore.

BJ Fogg is a Stanford psychologist who ran a class at Facebook for many years, teaching their UI/UX designers and frontend engineers how to make notifications hijack the human attention span. And he is only one example. There are many like him in the tech world trying to increase your screen time so they can increase the rates they charge advertisers.

Fun aside: I recently met with the head of "election integrity" at Meta. There are entire teams of data scientists and software engineers dedicated to "driving up the vote" (in their preferred demographic, of course). You should hear how these people talk about you...

It is wild to look back even a couple decades into the past. You would grab your wallet and keys and head out the door for the day! People had to guess where you were and call that location. These days, you can't ignore notifications and hope to stay employed. Or married.

Or can you?

Avoiding Notifications

This section is about work notifications specifically. When I'm focused, my phone is on Do Not Disturb. My wife knows to call if it's urgent, which will override my setting. Otherwise, a text will get answered eventually. This is a pretty good system for both of us.

Impress early.

This applies to everything from notification policy to compensation, status, etc.

First impressions stick. If you are perceived as a slacker, you will always be on the chopping block no matter much how you improve. If you are perceived as a boy genius, it will be nearly impossible for your colleagues to get that image out of their head.

I know we all want to minimize our W2 efforts—which we should—but please, spend a couple months absolutely wowing your boss before you tone it down. It will pay handsomely in the future. Your boss will learn that he doesn't need to harass you to get his "deliverables." He looks good, you look good, and you only work a few hours per week (if efficient).

Set the tone.

To counterbalance the first point, you have to set boundaries early for when you work and when you do not.

Be careful here.

If you have no career capital, you cannot simply announce "I don't work past 5:00 PM" without pissing off the wrong people. But also, the first time you reply to your boss's email at 10:00 PM, you can expect those 10:00 PM emails to keep rolling in.

So, what's the golden mean?

Schedule your emails/slacks and make sure they arrive at peak times (~8:00 AM and 4:00–5:00 PM). Don't respond immediately to notifications or people will start treating you like a chatbot.

Schedule the odd email to come in at 6:15 AM for brownie points.

Prevention is the best cure.

The best way to ignore notifications is to never receive them. Most office drones use their notifications as a second water cooler.

"I'm having trouble with this project, can you help?"

"What's the problem?"

"[Description]"

"Hmm, sounds hard, let's meet to discuss."

"Ok, what works for you?"

"How about Monday?"

"I can do Tuesday at 11:00, or Thursday at 2:00"

"Can you do Tuesday at 12:00?"

"Yeah"

Not only is this email thread painful, it will take hours to unfold. Remember how long it takes to return to a flow state? You do not have time to communicate like this.

Moreover, if you were to speak this way to anyone impressive you *actually* want to meet with, *they'd ghost your ass.*

Here's how it should look:

"Hi -----,

I'm having trouble with this [short description].

Do you know if [specific question].

If this would be better answered in person, let me know and I will put something on your calendar."

This email can be answered at the recipient’s convenience, and with a single email.

---

If I've done my job, you should disdain notifications now. You should also be thinking of ways to eliminate them.

Some miscellaneous tips:

• Notifications are best dealt with in batches, which prevents context switching

• Schedule a time to go through your notifications, such as after lunch. This helps remove the temptation to check them when you are working on something complex

• Telling your colleagues about your no-notification policy always backfires. Trust me. Jealousy is a hell of a drug...

See you next time.