REACTING IMMEDIATELY TO NOTIFICATIONS
At first, when the only social networks out there were essentially Facebook and Twitter, I thought that reacting immediately to notifications and stopping what you were doing was a typical teenager impulse … until I personally saw some small business owners doing the exact same thing over and over again on purpose. If it wasn’t on purpose, why would these people keep their computers and phones pinging all day? Everyone knows it possible to set it up otherwise, so it’s a conscious choice NOT to.
In fact, studies show that this is a symptom of psychological dependency, which is a serious topic. In other words, they’re addicted. People who rely on their phones the most, and feel anxious without these alerts, don’t actually feel better when they do check their messages and updates. They tend to have higher levels of stress, aggression, distraction, and depression, not to mention lower self-esteem.
Is it a good thing to be available to everyone, everywhere, all the time? Yes. But for whom? Only for the people trying to contact you.
But for you? HELL NO! Think about it: these people live in the notification world, that is, the reactionary world. In essence, they’re saying, “Tell me what you want from me because I don’t have anything else planned.” They’re conditioned to RESPOND and not to use their own initiative.
That’s why they can’t go sixty seconds without checking a text, email, DM, call, update, or alert. What a NIGHTMARE! What is good for us in the short term (temporal relief, comfort, immediate reward) is not good at all in the long term. The only thing that matters and that should guide your choices is that which concerns the LONG TERM.
You must be aware that there are thousands of people on the other side of your screen whose job it is to make you addicted to it, and the best way they have found is to bring you back to your phone as fast and as often as possible through these darn alerts. It’s not unlike the cigarette industry which gives customers more of what they want, despite its harmful effects.
“But if I follow your advice, I would miss some critical message from an important client!” you may object. That’s the tricky part: it’s in the beginning of your business owner journey that you need the quiet time to work on things that matter. But it’s also at this stage that the last thing you want is to miss a prospect’s request or a client’s update. That’s also the reason why this activity is not on the RUSTY list: valuable messages do of course come through from time to time.
The reality is that the demands of others are never about the highest leveraged activities that you need to work on. Your most meaningful work is rarely related to your notifications. That’s why the more your business grows, the less you care about other people’s messages: first, you’ll learn firsthand that they were never that important after all; second, you’ll have somebody to handle them for you.
That changes everything.
I’ll never forget the study that says that it takes twenty-three minutes for workers to get back on track and focus after a short distraction. Can you just imagine how many hours/weeks/months of productivity went up in smoke due to that problem, over the course of your working life?
Here’s your homework, if you’ve not already done it: turn off alerts for ALL your social media accounts, and for your emails; and use the airplane mode on your phone, especially when you work on something that requires an uninterrupted block of reflection time.
If you need accountability, that’s what I am here for. Sometimes, just a little guidance in overcoming challenges around your impulses and level of emotional restraint, can trigger a decisive shift in your life. Feel free to schedule a call with my team. Let’s see how I can personally help you on mastering your time management—just get ready for some intensity and a radical transformation:
More often than not, it’s much faster to learn what you don’t know, than to BECOME what you know. Reread the last sentence, and you’ll understand the reason why most people actually need support … and the reason why most people can read a myriad of fantastic books without producing any concrete results. It’s not just about acquiring the knowledge; it’s about the transformation process.
Again, don’t be mistaken: going from “don’t know” to “know” is much easier than going from “know” to “be”. The first step is like a large, pleasant but crowded road that is very short. The second is long, steep, and almost desert: that’s why the vast majority of people don’t take it. They prefer taking another short and easy road, i.e. acquiring another theoretical knowledge. And another one. And another one. And another one. They prefer piling knowledge than taking the road less-taken of transformation. But knowledge alone can’t do much for you. As it stands, it’s just entertainment. I’ve already helped clients of mine to create life changing results—as an M&A consultant and as a time management coach. I’m ready to do the same with you: to guide you on the LESS TAKEN ROAD.
Personally, I turn off my phone for many hours during the day. Most of the time, the only two people who can reach me are my wife and my assistant. You know very well that high performers rarely take calls that aren’t scheduled. That’s the reason why they’re so hard to reach, otherwise they would have to hang on their phones all day long. Dealing with calls, notifications, and alerts isn’t their top priority. Yes, you can keep notifications turned on for the apps you really need to stay on top of, but don’t fool yourself. Unless it’s related to your work, I suggest turning off everything. Forever.
Resist the temptation to check your emails, messages, and statuses every five minutes, and it’ll contribute to a reduction in stress. Let that productivity be your new addiction. You have your work cut out trying to handle that internal monologue of yours (worries, deadlines, priorities). There’s no need to add other distractions into the mix, especially when they’re almost always a hindrance.
You’re in the process of creating your new normal. First start with one or two hours of uninterrupted work. No less. Then after a couple of days, shut off your alerts for half a day. Then a whole day—maybe with a break during your lunchtime. That’s it. A brand-new habit, a brand-new schedule, and … a brand new YOU.
Make it harder for people to contact you. This way you ensure that only very important messages reach you.
Never forget that your main job is to PROTECT YOUR TIME, with the goal of FREEING UP YOUR TIME. The reason I’m a huge advocate of this section is that this is an activity that enables you to LEVERAGE your time to a tremendous effect.
EMAILS
Don’t give away your personal email address or phone number. Give your business’s phone number and business email address on a daily basis. Then, if you get more than a dozen emails per day, hire someone to handle them as soon as it’s financially possible.
Until then, don’t check your emails more than once or twice per half-day; that’s more than enough. If you feel like you’re in a very time-sensitive industry, I urge you all the more to hire an assistant. Otherwise, how can you possibly get any job done if you get interrupted every ten minutes? That’s impossible.
Get rid of your email notifications forever. You check them. They don’t check on you.
PHONE CALLS
The same thing goes for phone calls. Hire someone to handle your incoming phone calls as soon as it’s financially possible. Take your time to train them well. It’ll pay dividends—fast. It’s NOT optional, it’s a must have!
Think about it: what kind of a business is the one where the owner himself answers the phone? It’s NOT a business. That’s a guy who bought himself a job and who’s more often than not struggling to make both ends meet. That’s someone working from the back of their car; that’s a teenager in their room; but that’s not a business.
When you call a company, for example, your energy provider, do you expect the owner to answer the phone? Of course not. If someone wants to talk to you, and if you agree, then you have your assistant schedule them a call with you. If someone calls you and you answer, and it wasn’t a planned phone call, you have just tacitly agreed to do business on THEIR terms. That’s really what you’re CONVEYING.
When you SCHEDULE a call, it’s on your terms. If you think I’m exaggerating, try it. I promise you will never go back to the old bad habit of, “I answer all my phone calls.” Once your phone calls are planned by your assistant, you’ll notice a phenomenal difference in the way people talk to you on the phone. All of a sudden, they’re way easier to deal with because they’ve realized that you are not easy to reach, so they’re reluctant to mess you around. They know your time is precious. That’s what we call an AUTHORITY STATUS.
People respect those who defend their time. The simplest way to defend your time in this day and age is to kill all the notifications on all your devices. Don’t even get me started on those smartwatches. There’s nothing smart about knowingly inviting incessant distractions into your daily life. The purpose of a watch is to help you keep track of time, not to lose track of it. People are slowly beginning to look more and more like androids each day. We already have access to supercomputers in our pockets that are more powerful than a 1969 NASA computer. What else on God’s green earth do we need one strapped to our wrists for? A notification to let you know you have a notification?