Today I got a new phone.
A Pixel 5, to be exact — AKA: a little ‘Big Brother’ in my pocket.
I was pretty excited to get it, too.
But then I actually got it.
Now, I’m not saying it’s a bad phone or anything.
It’s actually a great phone — definitely the best I’ve ever had.
There are tons of bells and whistles I haven’t even dived into yet. And the camera — oh to camera! — it doesn’t get any better.
But here’s the thing…
I noticed while I was setting up the phone that I wasn’t getting my email notifications. So I started digging around to see if I could solve the problem.
I played with some settings. Cleared some cache and memory. Disabled and restarted some apps. Even went so far as changing some developer settings, which, based on my experience, I really have no right to do.
And guess what?
Nothing.
Nada.
No fixes.
Nothing I did seemed to work.
So I started getting a little annoyed.
Irritated, even.
This is a brand new phone, after all.
But then a thought hit me…
Who cares if I’m not getting email notifications? I can still check my email whenever I want. I don’t need a notification stealing my attention the moment a message arrives.
And you know what?
I really don’t.
I don’t need to be distracted every time a message comes through.
It’s never going to be the end of the world if I don’t get my emails RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND.
So I said fuck it and let it be.
I could do with fewer notifications anyway.
And you know what?
No matter how you slice it…
You could do with fewer, too.
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And when you’re ready 