My focus this months were: School, Edmontonian Social, health

I forgot about an important appointment regarding my health. This should not be a problem as I have set a calendar event and reminders to make notifications on my phone. Well, after missing that important appointment even though my phone apparently made all the sounds I set it to make, I started searching for a root cause that led me sitting at home unaware of me missing the important appointment. I now assume that the cause of me being disincentivized to hearing important notification from my phone is due to both important and not important things making notification sounds. In other words, it is not only rhe important things asking for my attention, but also the not important things. My brain unintentionally learned that the only way to avoid being disturbed by non-essential notifications (also known as noise) was to avoid all notifications.

Here is how I would describe this issue: Ambulances are a way to get those involved in a car crash to a hospital fast. We could argue that we can reduce the ambulances by reducing car crashes in the first place. And we can reduce car crashes by using more intimidating car horns, such as the one we use for ambulances. This may sound like a great idea at the beginning. But an unintended consequence would be us hearing ambulance siren way too often that when eventually an ambulance approaches we might ignore it thinking it must be someone disgruntled from their 9-17 job.

Phone notification are like that. Purpose of notification is to grab our attention when a attention worthy thing happens. Therefore we accept using annoying, yet attention grabbing sounds for notifications. Due to the very purpose of notifications, anything that is not worthy of immediate attention is not worthy of being a notification in the first place. Yet, we allow non-essentials stuff such as a reminder for a new video on YouTube, someone sharing a cute cat photo on social media with a funny joke or pun, or Duolingo telling us that our morning chest is ready to open, being notifications. Gradually, we are led into making notifications unhelpful.

Last few months, I have been trying to reclaim notifications by removing the noise. When my phone asks for my attention, it better be for a good reason. I am currently at a point that when my phone makes a sound, I check it almost immediately. This may make me seem like I have horrible FOMO problem, but if my phone makes a sound, it is important.