Do Not Disturb!

We know that interruptions and distractions are a bad thing. To be honest we even know that in many ways our smart phones are a bad thing – they're actually designed to be bad things, in that they are designed to be used – actively used that is, not just when we need them. They're created in such a way that they pull at our attention all the time.

So turning them off would be a good thing, right? And yet… and yet… and yet we tell ourselves that we can't do that because, well "What happens if there's something wrong at school and the kids need me?". On my bad days I'd like to say that few of us are as important to as many people as we pretend we are but that's just me on a bad day.

And that means we don't turn our phones of "just in case…"

Fortunately there is a third option and it's called "Do Not Disturb". All smartphones have it – the video is one I put together showing you the screen of my iPhone, but it works pretty much the same on Android phones.

What's the beauty of Do Not Disturb?

It solves the problem of 'just in case'. By putting your phone into Do Not Disturb mode you can be free of interruptions and distractions, so you can get on with your work. Great. But it gets better, because:

you can still access the tools on your phone whenever you want to – so you can call out on it, you can send messages on it and you can brows the web if you actively decide to. In other words you get the upsides of a phone
you can simply decide who to allow though by putting them on lists on your phone. When my Do Not Disturb is turned on you can't phone me so I can relax – but my children can, so I can relax even more, knowing that in emergencies I'm still available to the people who matter to me.

There are some people I know – very productive people – who have their Do Not Disturb turned on by default. They only turn it off a few times a day to consciously check their emails and so on… before going back to Do Not Disturb. It really is the best of both worlds in many ways.