How my Daily Life Changed by Putting my Phone on Silent Mode
#2: I feel less anxious
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A couple of months ago I decided to put my phone on silent mode, indefinitely. Since then, my daily life has changed significantly in three ways.
First of all, my attention span has increased.
This is why I decided to turn my phone on silent mode in the first place. To be honest, I get distracted very easily. So, when I started working remotely, I had to find a way to stop, or at least minimize distractions.
As you can imagine, or even experience yourself, my smartphone was a major distraction for me. Now, after having it mostly on silent mode — and vibration— I can stay focused on the tasks at hand for longer periods.
Secondly, I feel less anxious.
Before I changed the notification settings of my phone, I used to feel mildly anxious all the time. I used to study, work, and do whatever needed me to sit down in front of my computer and concentrate while having my phone at my side. But not only that, the internet connection was on, too. Thus, the notifications that I received from people texting, calling, and emailing me, or even from the apps on my phone, made me feel I had to do even more work and consequently increased my anxiety.
Thirdly, my productivity increased.
After following this tactic for at least a couple of months now, I can say confidently that I am more productive than before. It’s a result of both being more focused and less anxious, which made me realize practically what I have to work on more to start achieving the results I want in every aspect of my life.
Additional notes
I also want to mention that besides putting my phone on silent/ vibration mode, I turned on focus assist on my laptop, too. What is focus assist? It’s a setting that Windows 10 have that lets you set which hours of the day you won’t receive notifications. That also helps me a lot, as I have apps on my laptop such as Viber, Skype, etc., and receiving notifications from them alongside multiple email notifications during a single day, not only distracts me but makes me feel overwhelmed, too.
If you want to learn how to turn on focus assist on your computer, watch this short video.
