One Quick Idea to Keep Your Sanity During Insanely Busy Times
Picture this…
You are at your desk, swamped with emails. You also have way too many tabs open on your computer—latest grant proposal, appeal plan, meeting agendas, and more. Then, you get a text or a Slack message or a phone call.
Do you explode???
If you don’t explode, how do you keep your sanity when stuff is coming at you from all directions? When this happens to me—and it happens way more often than I’d like—here’s my go-to strategy:
Turn off notifications.
You may be thinking…
How can I possibly turn off notifications?
How will people reach me?
What if I miss something?
You don’t have to turn them off forever. And you don’t have to turn them off for everyone.
But every so often you just have to turn them off for a period of time just to keep maintain your own sanity.
You can start small—turn off new email notifications for one hour. Or you can go big and turn off notifications from everything. I do a mix of both, which works great for me:
I’ve turned off all notifications of new emails, forever. I check email at certain times during the day, and don’t get distracted every time something new comes in. And guess what, senders don’t know the difference.
I’ve also turned off all “badges” (you know, those annoying red circles that tell you how many unread Facebook messages you have) on both my computer and my phone. The only app that still has a badge is text.
When I’m in an important meeting, or just need some uninterrupted work time, I turn on “Do Not Disturb” (DND). I usually set DND to end automatically in an hour (or however long I need for the meeting or the work).
I have my master DND settings to allow certain people through no matter what: immediate family members, my mom’s caregivers, etc.
BONUS TIP: You can also set automatic DND for bed/sleep time. That way, work stuff won’t interrupt your much-needed and well-deserved rest.
And there it is. One quick idea to help you keep your sanity in the middle of insanely busy times.
Do you have thoughts or suggestions or quick ideas of your own? Drop them in the comments below!
