In Settings
To temporarily silence incoming calls, alerts, and sound effects, turn on Do Not Disturb.
Set options for alert tones and ringtones, and ringer and alert volumes.
Go to Settings
> Sounds.Drag the slider to set the volume for the ringer and alerts.
Tap Ringtone and other options to select sounds for the ringtone and alert tones.
To temporarily silence incoming calls, alerts, and sound effects, open Control Center, tap Focus, then tap Do Not Disturb.
Tip: If you’re not receiving incoming calls and notifications when you expect them, open Control Center, then check whether Do Not Disturb is on. If
Outlook can alert you to a variety of actions with sound effects. You can control some of these sounds through the Outlook options pane, while other settings are controlled by Windows.
When you receive a new message in Outlook, you can receive alerts with sounds, a message pop-up notification, or simply a change in the Outlook icon in the status bar.
To change these settings, use the following steps.
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Click the File tab.
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Click Options > Mail.
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Under Message Arrival, select or clear the Play a sound check box.
Note: You can also change other notification behaviors here, such as changing the mouse pointer briefly, showing an envelope icon in the bottom right of the Windows Taskbar, or showing a Desktop alert.
If you'd like to change the sound played when you receive a new message, see Change the sound played when an email message arrives.
When you receive a calendar, task, or flag reminder, Outlook can play a sound. To turn this on or off, use the following steps.
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Click the File tab.
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Click Options > Advanced.
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Under Reminders, select or clear the Play reminders sound check box.
If you choose to play a reminder sound, you can either use the default sound file or click Browse to select a sound file that you want to play.
Note: The instructions in this section are written for Windows 10. For older versions of Windows, the basic settings should remain the same, but the way you access these settings may be slightly different.
The volume of the sounds Outlook plays is controlled by your Windows sound settings.
Outlook may also play a sound for errors and alerts that you receive. For example, if you try to Dismiss All reminders from the Reminder dialog box, you may receive a warning or informational message. Other tasks that may have audible alerts include:
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Permanently deleting an item by pressing the Shift key and the Delete key
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Moving multiple conversations at once to another folder
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Closing an item you've made changes to without saving or sending the item
Whether or not sounds are played for these alerts is controlled by Windows. To turn all Windows sounds off, use the following steps.
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Click the Windows button and type Sound. You should see an option for Sound Settings.
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Click Sound Settings and use the Master volume slider to adjust your sound levels. By adjusting the Master volume to its lowest level (0), sounds will be muted.
You can change the sound Windows plays for various alerts and reminders by using the following steps.
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Click the Windows button and type change sound. You should see an option for Change sound settings.
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Click Change sound settings.
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In the Sound dialog box, you can select an item from the Program Events list to change the sound associated with the event. To never play a sound for that event, regardless of your other Windows sound settings, use the Sounds dropdown box and choose (None) from the very top of the list.
How do you start your mornings?
If you’re like me, your morning routine might look something like this: You check email from your phone before even getting out of bed, you scan headlines on Twitter while you brew your morning coffee, and you look at Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat during your commute to work to see what your friends are up to.
I do all of this because I’m curious to see what’s going on online, but I also do it to clear out the red symbols that pop up when I have an unread email, text message, like, snap, or tweet.
As it turns out, there could be a downside to all of the benefits mobile technology provides. We might be able to work from anywhere on our smartphones or tablets, but suchmobility and accessibility come at a cost -- and too much technology could actually be making us less productive.
In this post, we’ll explore how notifications impact your brain and your mental and physical health, and what you can do with your devices to help minimize the negative impacts of the little red dot.
Notifications, or Drugs for Your Mind
Studies have shown that receiving text messages and other mobile notifications triggers the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with reward-seeking behaviors and addiction. And like drug or alcohol addiction, notifications can make us feel great when we’re receiving them -- and go into negative feelings of withdrawal when we aren’t. That’s right, people -- notifications are sort of like drugs.
Constant information overload puts our decision-making and productivity skills at risk, too. According to Microsoft Research, it takes an average of 25 minutes to get back on task after being interrupted by an email notification during the work day. Multiply that by however many emails you receive in a given day, and think about how much time you could be wasting.
Push notifications, or notifications that are automatically sent to your phone, are particularly pernicious. A study of more than 2,000 workers in the United Kingdom found push notifications were causing toxic levels of stress, especially when email notifications were left unread. This issue was most prevalent among media, marketing, and PR professionals, 60% of whom used push notifications as part of their day-to-day job.
Source: Future Work Centre
Additionally, excessive social media use, especially Facebook, is linked to negative feelings of social comparison and the fear of missing out (FOMO). Research shows that users who check social media apps often start to believe their friends lead better lives, and these feelings of FOMO and competition can lead to social anxiety, feelings of loneliness, and mood swings.
This constant liking and seeking behavior -- eagerly clicking to learn what the email, notification, or text says -- is impacting our ability to pay attention to things, especially the written word, says Emily Yoffe at The Atlantic. It’s also hurting the dopamine centers in our brain and making these behaviors stressful and less enjoyable the more we do them over and over again.
To prevent all of this, there are a few steps you can take to avoid notification overload -- while still being able to use your phone and do your job.
What You Can Do to Minimize Push Notification Anxiety
1) Turn off notifications for specific apps.
Turn off desktop notifications, sounds, and icons that will distract you during work hours so you only receive notifications when you choose to look at them.
How to turn Gmail notifications off:
Navigate to your Settings gear icon and select “Mail notifications off” on the Desktop Notifications menu.
How to turn Slacknotifications off:
Tap the bell icon to manage your notification preferences. From there, you can customize how and if you want to receive desktop notifications by clicking “Notification Settings.”
You can even turn off the pesky red dot that indicates any unread activity if you really need to focus.
You can also manage notifications settings for specific channels by tapping the gear icon at the top of each channel.
2) Turn off notifications entirely.
Turn off push notifications for every app you don’t absolutely have to check immediately. A recent study showed push notifications can be as distractingas a phone call -- even if you don’t immediately check the notification. Turn them off entirely for apps where you can manage how often you jump in to check on things, like social media or gaming apps.
Howto turn off notifications on iOS devices:
Navigate to your Settings menu, tap Notifications, and scroll down the list of your apps. There, you have the option to turn off "Allow Notifications."
Howto turn off notifications on Androiddevices:
Navigate to your settings menu, select "Sound & notification," tap into "App notifications," and block notifications from specific apps, as shown in the second image below.
3) Customize notifications.
Customize the sound or vibrations patterns different applications make so you know what messages you receive without having to check your devices. For example, create a longer tone for text messages, and a shorter tone for incoming emails.
Howto customizenotifications on iOS devices:
Navigate to your Settings menu, select "Sounds," and scroll down to "Sounds and Vibration Patterns." From there, you can click into different events("Ringtone," "Text Tone," "New Voicemail"), and choose a specific pattern for each.
Howto customizenotifications on Androiddevices:
Navigate to your Settings menu, tap "Sounds and notifications," then "Vibrations, and click "Vibration intensity" and "Vibration pattern" to change how different events sound and feel when you receive alerts.
Source: Inside Galaxy
4) Change how your mobile device displays are organized.
Organize your mobile device desktop and move less important apps to your second screen off your default phone screen. That way, when the notifications do pop up and start flashing, you’ll only have to access them by choice when it’s time to see what’s going on.
For example, if you’re an iOS mobile device user, you know the App Store has a near-constant red notification symbol indicating an available app or device update. This isn’t an exact science, but I’ve organized my iPhone’s two screens by moving my notification-prone apps to the second screen. This way, I have to decide to go look at them instead of getting stressed and distracted when I open my phone to make a quick phone call or text.
The notifications are still there (unless I turn them off), but at least I’ve achieved some separation and minimized distraction from the dreaded red number icon.
5) Designate specific times for answering emails, texts, and social media messages.
Try turning off your email push notifications when you leave the office at the end of the day. Set time limits on when you can use your social media apps during your personal time. At the very least, try to enforce one limit on yourself so you feel like you have enough time to check your notifications, and enough time to enjoy life without notification stress.
You could also monitor your usage habits on a productivity tool to restrict the amount of time you spend on websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others -- especially while at work. Here are a few you might like using:
- StayFocusd
- RescueTime
- Self Control
6) Delete apps you don’t use.
This one’s simple enough. It’s easy enough to forget about an app you’ve downloaded butaren’t using anymore. If there’s an app that’s sending you notifications you don’t use, just delete it from your browser or mobile device.
How to delete Chrome browser extensions:
Tap the three dots on the right-hand side of your browser to access your Chrome settings on the drop-down menu. Then, go to the Extensions menu, and either disable notifications or delete the extension altogether by clicking the trash can icon.
How to delete iOS apps:
Delete iOS apps by holding your finger down on an app icon until all icons start floating with small gray x symbols in the upper left-hand corner. Then, simply tap the x icons of the apps you want to delete.
How to delete Android apps:
Head to the Settings menu, click “Apps,” then tap on the name of the app you want to delete. From there, tap “Disable” or “Uninstall.”
Source: UpToDown
How do you deal with push notification stress? Share with us in the comments below.
Topics:
Mobile Apps