Wants to Send You Notifications

<Insert Useless App Here> Wants to Send You Push Notifications.

No. No more notifications. No more alerts. No more pop-ups. No more stealing my attention!

My time is valuable, very valuable. I have a wife and 2 year old son who love me very much (and I them.) When you are at work 8-9 hours out of the day, the time spent with your family, should be spent focusing on your family. I have a job to do so I can provide for my family, I should be focusing on completing my tasks not constantly checking my inbox.

I came to the realization this morning just how often my phone beeps or I go check my inbox; and I interrupt life to divert my attention to something that honestly is not important. My family, loved ones, and people in general deserve more than interruptions. Heck, even the task that I should be doing now deserves more focus than the constant interruptions I submit myself to. If I’m constantly checking my phone, or my email, or whatever feed, I am diverting from attention from what really matters in life.

This realization has been some time coming. I was driving the other day when I noticed a little boy riding his bike on the side walk, a few feet behind him trailed his mom. Focused entirely on her cell phone. It looked sad. The little boy looked like he was having a great time riding his bike, but his mom seemed to be paying no attention that excitement. What a shame it is that we can’t focus on the here and now. Or maybe people are trying to focus on the here and now, but looking in the wrong places. Do I want my son to grow up having to constantly fight for attention with a cell phone?! Absolutely not.

I’m done with it. I’m done with the white noise stealing my attention from what really matters. Today I’m turning off all the notifications on my phone. I will not be constantly checking my email, or Twitter, or Facebook. I’m not saying I’m throwing my phone out the window or ignoring email, but when it’s time to be with my family, or time to get a job done, or even interacting with the cashier at the coffee shop…

I will be focusing on what really matters.