Life-Changing Decisions

I made a life-changing decision last month. I didn’t realize how life-changing it was at the time, I just got this impulse and I acted on it. And it was free. And it was simple. And you can do it, too, if you haven’t already. 

I simply turned off email notifications on my phone, specifically on my home screen. I turned off social media notifications years ago…or maybe never turned them on, but for some reason, I thought I needed to know the very moment I received an email. I had myself convinced that “as a small business owner” I absolutely needed to respond to any email within 30 minutes. But, of course, that was a rule I had made up AND it went counter to all of my messaging around slowing down and letting go of the urgency. 

I would wake up in the night and check the time…and see that I had an email which I then felt compelled to check. I would wake up in the morning and before my feet hit the ground, I’d already be thinking about work because I’d already know what emails I had. I’d be out walking my dog and check the time on my phone only to find out someone had emailed me and maybe I should walk faster so that I could get home and respond to the email. And, of course, as I drifted off to sleep, I’d peek one more time at my phone and see that an email had come in. 

And then one day a voice inside my head said: turn off those notifications, you get to decide when you want to look at email.

And, you guys, it has changed my life!! I feel calmer and less anxious. I feel like I am in control instead of my inbox. I go hours without looking at emails and it’s NO BIG DEAL!!  (Ok, I also added an auto-responder letting folks know they may not hear back from me right away because I was anxious that they would think I was ignoring them. The autoresponder immediately reduced my anxiety around the urgency of responding…it’s like having an assistant who lets people know that they will make sure I get the message!)

Now, you may have already done this or maybe you don’t care about emails in the same way I do, but I bet there is some small tweak you could make that would create a similar lifting of anxiety. I always keep my phone on silent so that I don’t get constant dingings of texts. Maybe you’re ready to leave your phone in the other room when you’re in bed. 

If you are a person who struggles with anxiety, chronic pain, or some other chronic illness which is exacerbated by stress, I encourage you to find one small way you can reduce your technology load and in turn, reduce your stress. (And don’t get me started on those “smart” watches!! If you’ve got one of those, the best thing you can do is drop in the nearest body of water before it takes over your brain!!)