Notification triage: keep the signal, kill the noise

Every app arrives with notifications on because interruption is its business model. Each ping is a small context switch, and the re-entry cost lands on you, not the app.

For a brain that chases novelty, a badge is a slot machine. The fix is not more resistance — it is fewer pulls.

Each interruption also bids for a follow-up: one badge glance becomes a ten-minute scroll more often than anyone admits.

Every app gets exactly one verdict. No fourth tier, no case-by-case feelings.

• Allow: things that protect you. Calendar, calls and messages from real people, banking alerts.
• Summary: things worth seeing on your schedule. Email, news, delivery updates — bundled, once or twice a day.
• Silent: everything else. Social, shopping, games, streak guilt. Open them when you choose.

If a ping would not make you leave the room, it does not deserve to enter it.

Open your notification settings and work down the list once. Speed matters more than precision — you can promote an app later if you genuinely miss it.

• Kill badges on everything outside the allow tier; the red dot is pure pull.
• Turn off sounds first, banners second.
• Most phones offer a scheduled digest for the summary tier — use it.
• When in doubt, silent. Doubt means the app failed the test.

Do it in the settings list on the phone itself, not from memory. The list shows what actually pings, not what you think pings.

Apps re-ask, and new apps default to noisy. Two small rules protect the gains.

• Every new app starts on silent until it earns promotion.
• Five minutes on the first of the month: scroll the list, demote whatever crept back.

Attention is the budget; this audit is the budget meeting. Twenty minutes, once, buys it back daily.