On an average week, I can receive at least 1400 comment notifications for my site Baggage Reclaim. Now imagine that popping up on my iPhone, my iPad, and my laptop. Ping, ping, ping, all day long.
Frustrated with my ever swelling inbox a few weeks ago and intent on reducing my distractions, I turned off comment notifications, which in hindsight I now recognise as the obvious thing to do. I think when I first started out blogging almost 8 years ago, it was exciting to see emails about comments, but really, my ego doesn’t need that much of a stroking, not least because all it takes is for me to refresh the WordPress app on my phone or go on the laptop to achieve exactly the same thing. When you throw in the fact that these are all comments awaiting moderation, notifications are redundant for me.
The change has been dramatic. I feel lighter and more focused.
I can actually see important emails, but what I have found has been the biggest change, is that I hardly check my email and sometimes I forget to check if any comments have come through for several hours – it’s wonderful!
Just like I don’t need to read and reply to emails as soon as they come in (to be fair I tend to read and put replying on the long finger as I get distracted or convince myself it needs more than a couple of minutes of my attention – that’s a whole other post), I don’t need to read and approve comments as they come in either.
Getting comment notifications is unnecessary doubling up. Or in my case tripling.
Sometimes it’s the simple things that have a big effect.
I’m also turning off other notifications including Twitter and form submissions. And…..breathe.
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