Count how many times your phone or computer buzzed yesterday. For most business owners, the number is high, and very few of those alerts came from a person who needed an answer. A sale in an app you used once. A social media like. A news headline. A reminder to update software. A store you bought from last year.

Each alert takes only a second to glance at. But every glance pulls your attention away from what you were doing, and getting it back takes much longer than the glance itself.

Why it works

Notifications are designed to grab your attention, and they work. The trouble is that they treat everything as equally urgent. A message from a client and a discount code from an app get the same buzz, so your brain has to check every single one.

Keeping only the alerts that come from people changes that. When your phone buzzes, it’s almost always something worth seeing. Everything else can wait until you choose to look.

It also takes away dozens of small decisions a day. You’re no longer deciding whether to check each alert, because most of them never arrive.

How to run it

1. Open your phone’s notification settings and go through the list of apps one by one.
2. Keep notifications on for calls, texts and messages from clients, family and anyone who might truly need you during the day.
3. Turn off notifications for social media, shopping, news, games and most other apps. You can still open them whenever you like.
4. Do the same on your computer: turn off email pop-ups and app alerts, and check email at times you choose instead.
5. After a week, notice which alerts you actually missed. Turn back on only the ones that matter.

The mistake most people make

Keeping “just in case” notifications. Very few apps send anything that can’t wait an hour. If you’re not sure whether you need an alert, turn it off and see whether you miss it.

The other mistake is turning everything off, including the people who need to reach you. The goal isn’t to disappear. It’s to make sure the alerts you get are worth getting.