3 Surprising Things That Happen When You Turn Off Social Media Notifications

Social media can take up a lot of our time but if you’d like to be more intentional and present during the day, turn off social media notifications.

I don’t know about you but every time my phone lights up, I end up checking more than just what it originally notified me for.

That’s also why I’ve added time limits on a couple of apps (both happen to be social media apps).

But turning off social media notifications has worked wonders when it comes to focus and productivity away from my phone.

So today I’m sharing the 3 things I’ve learned when I finally turned off my social media notifications.

Going Without Social Media Notifications

This post is in no way me telling you how to live your life.

I’m also not gonna sit here and tell you about how “bad” social media is.

The internet can be a beautiful thing if done right and by avoiding its ugly side (which can be easier said than done).

But it’s come a long way and it’s part of our culture now, especially here in the United States. It’s a HUGE way of our communication.

But…

It can really hinder our performance and productivity when we need to have complete mindfulness in any given situation.

Like, at work. Or with our kids. Or pets. Or at school.

So here are the 3 things that surprised me when I turned off social media notifications:

Related: How I’ll Be Using Social Media More Intentionally

1. You don’t pick up your phone as much

Now, this is sort of a given.

If we don’t get notified about someone liking our cute selfie on Instagram, we’re not tempted to open up the app and get stuck liking other people’s selfies for the next 27 minutes.

But this allows our phones to take a little breather (ourselves included) and helps us continue doing our work or whatever we’ve got going on during the day.

Social media notifications on our phones are just distractions that only serve to take us out of the state of flow. Click To Tweet

When I first turned them off, I would check my phone out of habit. And then I would go into the app to see if anyone had liked my posts or commented.

But after a while, I stopped going into the apps altogether.

This is a perfect time to schedule your social media time. Schedule a specific time during the day to follow up on comments or check on your friends, etc.

Picking up your phone with more intention and purpose will eventually become part of your lifestyle.

If you use an iPhone, you can keep the badges on but turn off all other notifications and sounds. That way you’ll know you have a notification that you can follow up on later.

We deserve a break from so much noise once in a while. While leads me to my next point…

2. You get less screen time.

I’m typing on a computer right now. You’re probably reading this on your phone or laptop. We’ve got screens everywhere!

And our phones are our primary screen.

It’s definitely not normal for humans to be consuming this amount of screen time every single day.

Especially right now with the pandemic, screens are almost all we’ve got to keep us sane.

And others are having to work from home, in front of a screen all day.

By turning off social media notifications, you’re allowing yourself even just a little less screen time.

If you’re not aware of the iPhone screen time feature (other types of phones might also have something similar), I highly recommend you play with it.

Here’s a link to the Apple instructions if you need some assistance on setting it up: Use Screen Time on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

You can set app limits for certain durations and the screen time feature also allows you to put your apps to “sleep” at a specific time. For example, I set mine to turn off all apps an hour before bed.

That way only specific emergency apps are available to me, nothing else.

Less screen time, more being in the present works wonders for our mental health as well.

3. Less clutter and less noise.

When you declutter your phone and all its notifications, you’ll start feeling more free.

Now, it’s not easy at first. When we’re so accustomed to checking our phones and being on social media, it’s not easy to cut them out cold turkey.

But maybe start with turning off notifications on one app one week, then another the next week.

It’s about getting you to be more comfortable (and free) away from your phone, specifically social media.

You’ll have more time for yourself, doing the things you love without the noise and distractions of social media and your phone constantly needing your attention.

Imagine all that attention going somewhere else, somewhere more productive, somewhere where it’s actually needed.

Less Social Media Notifications, More Mindfulness

Turning off social media notifications may not seem life-changing but over time, it affects your productivity, focus and your state of flow.

I speak from experience when I say that I’ve become more intentional when it comes to picking up my phone and going on social media.

You might have read through these and thought “these aren’t all that surprising, like of course that would happen!“

But the thing is, while these may be common sense, they’re tougher than they sound when put into practice for those of us who are constantly on social media.

It’s not easy doing this but the benefits of less social media are amazing.

So give it a shot! Let me know what you think or if you’ve had social media notifications turned off already, what have you learned?

I wanna know everything.

Thanks so much for stopping by, see you next time!

-Karina