The heart of a useful technology system that is going to be productive is notifications. Notifications are the little beeps and boops and popups and vibrations that our various devices use to tell us something is happening. Notifications have been around since the dawn of man. Way back, people would yell from across the valley to let you know something is happening. When doors were invented, people would knock on them to notify you someone was there. Flags on mailboxes, back in the day, were invented to notify you there was mail. The ice cream truck has a little jingle it plays (Turkey in the straw?), phones ring, police and fire trucks have sirens, In and Out burger shouts out your number and everything else that wants to let you know it is there or that is has something for you has a way to notify you.
So notifications are not new. But smart phones and connected computers, smart watches and other electronic devices all want to notify you about everything. The key, therefore, to proper use of technology is to manage your notifications. For several years, Apple devices have forced apps to ask before they can send notifications. I have talked to many who just say yes to everything and then complain that their phone will not shut up.
To make notifications useful, a person must decide what they want to get notified about. For some it will be their favorite games, for some it will be all email, for others it will only be email from family members. This will take planning and a little work. Fortunately most phone manufacturers have put all their notification settings in one place. For the iPhone, there is a setting area called notifications where apps can be turned on or off with a switch. Another aspect of notifications for texts and phone calls is unique ringtones. I have a different ringtone for each family member, a group ringtone for members of my church and a general ringtone for everyone not in my contacts. This way, without looking, I can tell who is calling. I do this with text tones also. Every family member has a unique text tone so I can tell who is texting without looking.
Not all notifications are audible, however. On computers and phones and watches, visual notifications are being very popular. Seeing the first few lines of an email, telling me a calendar appointment has been changed and man y other items of interest. Seeing a summary or the first line of a text or email is a great way to make a quick decision and being able to triage notifications on my watch is a great asset.
Once notifications are honed to be useful, then a person will know that when a pop or ding happens, it is actually useful and something that needs to be attended to. With notifications under control electronic devices actually become useful tools of productivity and communication again.
Several tech commentators have seen the importance of notification management. Mac Power Users produced a podcast on notifications on May 8th, 2017. Steve Gillmor held a notification summit: November of 2015. Both these events give ideas and show the importance of proper notification management. Steve Gillmor also took the stand that app developers need to be intelligent about the notifications they give, allow the users to have gradual control and to have intelligence ways to deal with notifications.
#Thoughts on Notifications#
To make notifications useful, a person must decide what they want to get notified about. For some it will be their favorite games, for some it will be all email, for others it will only be email from family members. This will take planning and a little work. Fortunately most phone manufacturers have put all their notification settings in one place. For the iPhone, there is a setting area called notifications where apps can be turned on or off with a switch. Another aspect of notifications for texts and phone calls is unique ringtones. I have a different ringtone for each family member, a group ringtone for members of my church and a general ringtone for everyone not in my contacts. This way, without looking, I can tell who is calling. I do this with text tones also. Every family member has a unique text tone so I can tell who is texting without looking.
Not all notifications are audible, however. On computers and phones and watches, visual notifications are being very popular. Seeing the first few lines of an email, telling me a calendar appointment has been changed and man y other items of interest. Seeing a summary or the first line of a text or email is a great way to make a quick decision and being able to triage notifications on my watch is a great asset.
Once notifications are honed to be useful, then a person will know that when a pop or ding happens, it is actually useful and something that needs to be attended to. With notifications under control electronic devices actually become useful tools of productivity and communication again.
Several tech commentators have seen the importance of notification management. Mac Power Users produced a podcast on notifications on May 8th, 2017. Steve Gillmor held a notification summit: November of 2015. Both these events give ideas and show the importance of proper notification management. Steve Gillmor also took the stand that app developers need to be intelligent about the notifications they give, allow the users to have gradual control and to have intelligence ways to deal with notifications.
#Thoughts on Notifications#
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