I need some help. I have started to respond to every “ping” on my cell phone indicating a new email has arrived. I stop what I’m doing and read the email. This is a time-waster, a terrible distraction and I’m becoming more irritated at myself for my inability to resist reading and responding immediately.
Do other people have this problem? How do you manage to avoid being distracted by pings?
10 Comments
bonnie jean woolger
lol, I don’t have a “smart” phone
ana
During “business hours” I put my phone on vibrate then I don’t hear the “pings” and only when I get a call does my phone do the vibrating dance on my desk. Take back your time and choose when to check and reply to emails.
Sandra Strait
Well…I…just a moment, I have to see who is pinging…Lol! I’m with Bonnie Jean Woolger. I have resisted the smart phone. I have enough trouble with just staying away from emails on my PC.
David Maliniak
Yes, “pings” from my phone distract me. Texts, emails, Facebook/Twitter posts, all of them generate “pings.” The solution is relatively simple: I turn off all audible/vibrating notifications in the respective applications. I leave on status bar notifications. So when I wake up the phone, I see that stuff is waiting for me. Ahh… peace!
JoniB
I’m of the David Maliniak school of thought. Turn off the sound and like Ana, I put the vibrate on but let calls ring in. I do full sound notifications if I am at out of town meetings and away from my laptop, however.
Ivan R
I turn of auto syncing and manually pull email or whatever on my own schedule.
Penemuel
If you’re not expecting an important e-mail response, turn notifications off. Even better, turn the sync off so that it isn’t constantly eating your battery as well as interrupting you. That way, you can get what you need to do done, and then you can either manually sync or turn the automatic setting back on.
Joy
Is this a trick question?
Turn. Off. The. Sound.
Karen Doherty
Thank you all for your responses. I find turning the sound on and off is a pain in its own way–then you have to remember you turned the sound off! I just leave the phone at home when I go to church, kayaking or other places where I don’t want to be bothered. My problem is that I have programmed myself to respond to whatever call or email I get as fast as I can. I have to get myself in another frame of mind, where I respond quickly, but not necessarily immediately.
Jolene
The only notifications I have set are phone calls and text messages. No notifications for emails, tasks, whatever else. I even have my email notifications turned off on my desktop. I get so much email that I would be distracted all of the time.
I used to think I could multitask well, but I’ve learned that I can’t multitask. I can only focus my attention to what I’m doing at that time. (Yes, I have extra paper with me to jot down unrelated ideas/reminders that pop up when I’m focusing, otherwise I’d forget them, and my brain doesn’t like that one bit.)