No Notifications
This tip is my favorite so far… if not ever, all time. Ready for it?
Turn off your notifications on your phone & computer. I’ve mentioned this in a previous blog post about not getting sucked into your email inbox all day long, but there’s more of a distraction than just emails. Texts, social media, shopping apps - and a whole host of others send notifications throughout the day to our phone and computer. And those very notifications can be truly disruptive during your workday.
There are a few solutions:
Turn off notifications altogether. This would go beyond your workday and silence notifications permanently, which is actually quite nice. You can do this for ALL notifications, or just for select apps on your phone. I went through and chose the ones that I determined I didn’t need to hear from and turned the notifications off, and am happy to report - I don’t miss them.
You can set up a focus schedule for different parts of your day or different work flows you have and screen through different notifications depending on what works for you, when. This is another practice that I use, especially as a working mom - sometimes I need texts and calls silenced, but also need the peace of mind knowing that family can get in touch in the event of an emergency. That’s possible with the focus permissions.
Lastly, you can go into full “do not disturb” mode whenever you need to. This is easier and takes less set up than the previous two solutions. It is all or nothing, but is a good option when you are in presentations or really need to get deep into creative work.
Not only are the minimized distractions helpful during the creative work times it can also be helpful when you really need to put your head down and work on the business side of things too - especially if those tasks are not your favorite. The notifications can be an easy way to procrastinate getting something done, so not having that temptation there at all is just as helpful as minimizing the distraction.
Taking the constantly pinging phone - that now is also mirrored on computers & tablets - out of the equation completely can go a long way in increasing our productivity as well as keeping us from feeling distracted, frazzled and pulled in a million different directions as creative small business owners.
Looking for more help with running and operating your small business? Dovetail Creative Consulting specializes in operations consulting for creatives. Please reach out via email - hello@dovetailcreativeconsulting.com.