Everyday Essential Services Strategist | Social Media Sphere Strategist
Most of us should have their iPhone permanently on "Do Not Disturb".
This Feature "Do Not Disturb" is not as severe as you might think, thanks to a sub- feature to “Allow Calls From Favourites.” This means you can still allow certain people to interrupt you or wake you up!!!
The trick to getting the Do Not Disturb feature to work all day is to turn it on from the same time to the same time, such as from 9am to 9am. I tested it and that works (I was worried it would eBectively turn itself on and oB again in the same minute).
If, however, you do want strangers to be able to contact you (for example, if you work in sales), then just set Do Not Disturb for your sleep and leisure time.
• Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb
• Schedule for all of your private time, say 6pm to 9am, or preferably, all day by setting from 9am to 9am.
• Allow calls from your favourites. Now your Favourites list actually takes on more meaning: this is your whitelist of people who you would allow to interrupt you.
• There’s a Repeated Calls option to allow repeat callers to get through. Do not select this. We absolutely do not want to train telemarketers to think this will work.
You might want to double check who is on your favourites — I added my accountant and Solicitor in order to make sure those calls always came through.
Become the Boss of your iPhone do not let the iPhone Boss you
The justiHcation here is similar to the steps above. Limited interruptions is smart for a number of reasons, including the science of brain plasticity, the health impact of anxiety, and the productivity gains of optimizing for deep work (all covered in more depth in Appendix A below).
What the above Do Not Disturb setting allows you to do is to take a ‘whitelist’ strategy to interruptions. So rather than banning
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How to Configure Your iPhone to Work for You, Not Against You 07/12/2018, 20)33
telemarketers one-by-one (‘blacklisting’), you pre-select the very limited number of people who you would allow to interrupt your day. For me, that’s my immediate family, my dog walker, and my dog’s vet.
This is the same strategy as the previous article on Hide Social Media Slot Machines, but this is just for messaging apps. Messaging apps also have a built-in variable rate reward — that’s what makes them slot machines.
• Move your mail apps, Messages, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger into a folder on your second screen. You decide when you check these. So now you can live a life without interruptions!!!
• I have called this folder Messages. The default iPhone folder name suggestion is "Productivity"!!! Should be "Less Activity" smiles.
• Follow the same idea from Hide Social Media Slot Machines, hide all but one of the apps on the second screen of the folder.
I check these in my own time and have all notifications turned completely off..
The secret here for inbox management is for you to decide when you want to check YOUR messages. Then, process them all in one go. This now puts you in control. I believe most people live their lives reactively, constantly checking their inboxes for messages to react to - I know this was me... So to reach yours and my full potential, we need to switch to a batch processing mindset for all of your inboxes, maybe example 10am and 4pm... But you decide your in control
These messaging apps should never interrupt you. So block off your day so that you have some time dedicated to being smart and creative (no interruptions) and then other blocks dedicated to rapid task processing (email, texts etc.).
Those who set a schedule for when and where they check their inboxes often realise they can do all of their emailing, texts and WhatsAp from their Laptop or Desk Top Computer, it now means that you don’t need immediate alerts!!!
Let the iPhone work for you, you are its Boss! do not let the iPhone be your Boss.... take back control