The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal

How fixing notifications changed my relationship with my phone

By Nicole Nguyen

22 Jan 2023 · 4 min read

Editor's Note

Are you stuck in notification hell? The Wall Street Journal gives us some useful tips on how to escape this digital realm, such as culling notifications, batching alerts and disabling red badges.

Until recently, I was stuck in phone-notification hell.

Unread texts and emails piled up. Apps pinged me so frequently that I began to feel phantom vibrations in my pocket. I’d turn on Do Not Disturb, only to be met with a long list of alerts once I was ready to be disturbed. I wanted to throw my phone into the sea and go off the grid.

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