It’s easy to feel overwhelmed these days with icons alerting us to new text messages, missed calls and unread emails. Something I started doing a while ago, which has really helped my mental health, was turning off notifications for certain apps and social media platforms.
It started with email. I am the type of person who likes to have all of my email marked unread at the end of the day. But the problem is, the email never ends! I now keep my email notifications on my personal email off and I check it when I need to.
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The next thing was Instagram. I already spend too much time on the platform, so I knew I didn’t need notifications reminding me to keep opening it. And the same thing for Facebook. Soon, all of my social media platforms had notifications turned off.
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One other thing I started doing during the pandemic was setting time limits at night to be off my phone. After working all day, I try to put my phone down for two to three hours without looking at it before bed. I leave the ringer on in case someone needs to reach me, of course, but I don’t look at text messages, emails or reminders. This has been a huge mood booster, especially during the pandemic when spending so much time at home and on screens.
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Take my word for it and turn off those notifications. Trust me, you will feel better before you know it.