HackMake

Matt Galligan:

Notifications are a drug. They’re designed to distract you and lure you back into whatever app they come from. Some can be very valuable, but for the most part are generally the crux of distraction. This addiction causes some really awkward social behavior: people at gatherings but all staring at their phones, friends at dinner but spending too much time checking up on their various social networks, the examples are numerous.

Go do this now. I’m serious. It will change things. I did it a couple months ago and it has helped me understand the value of focusing on the thing I want to be doing at that moment and made me realize how much less immediate attention I need to be paying to anything else.

Often, it goes back to this tweet by Scott Simpson:

My new standard of cool: when I’m hanging out with you, I never see your phone ever ever ever.

I want my time to be well spent. That means that when I’m writing I’m not being interrupted by notifications and when I’m out for dinner with a friend my phone never leaves my pocket.