Despite all the digital reminders available on smartphones, if you still find it hard to respond to an urgent message or notification, you’re not alone. The frequency of notification created an opposite effect. They distract people more than alert them to important happenings.

But in order to beat notification fatigue, you first need to understand how it specifically affects your life and online experience.

What Is Notification Fatigue?

Notification fatigue happens when your brain starts tuning out your phone’s ringtone and occasional vibration. It’s not that you no longer care about the tasks, news, and communication your phone provides, but your brain is fatigued.

If you take a moment to think about it, whenever your phone beeps or buzzes, how often is the reminder actually important? How many times have you rushed to your phone, but it was nothing more than a random reminder from Instagram or Facebook to use the app?

Over time, you’ll start ignoring your phone whenever there’s a notification. Sometimes until it’s too late. And when you do check your phone, and drag down the notification panel, but it has over 15 tabs competing for your attention.

Your tired and uninterested brain is likely to swipe away at all of them. You end up treating an important message from work, school, or family the same way you’d treat a useless Instagram notification.

When Did It Start?

While it’s hard to be sure, notification fatigue has been mentioned multiple times in news articles and research papers as early as the early and mid-2000s. But back then, it wasn’t an average person issue. The majority of the people affected by notification fatigue were professionals working in high-stress and high-stakes fields.

Security professionals, first responders, and even medical professionals were one of the first people to report experiencing notification fatigue. When their emergency communication devices would alert them at every small incident, they became desensitized whenever their device would alert them to an actual emergency.

As for users, it’s around the time smartphones and push notifications became widespread. Not to mention, it’s getting worse. As the median number of apps, the average user has increased, the more pressing those apps have to be for your time and attention.

How to Beat Notification Fatigue

girl sad face using phone

Throwing away your smartphone and replacing it with a flip phone isn’t a viable option for everyone. Smartphones provide unlimited and convenient access to information, school, work, and family and friends. Luckily, it's not either this or that. You can still use your smartphone without losing focus.

1. Customize App Notifications

Most apps come with nearly all of their notification options enabled by default. If you don’t take matters into your hands, you may get a loud notification every time an account you follow on Twitter posts a meme.

Luckily, there are multiple ways you can customize, and even disable app notifications altogether. For most apps, you should check each app’s internal settings. There, you can configure its notifications and what type of alerts you want to receive.

If an app doesn’t make notification management easy for you, you can always adjust its preferences from your phone’s settings.

  • Simply go to your phone’s Settings and scroll down to Apps.
  • Choose the app you want to customize, then tab Notifications.

You can control every app’s notification settings, whether you prioritize it or don't want it to send you notifications in the first place.

2. Clean Up Your Email Subscriptions

Emails are making a comeback as an essential form of digital communication. It’s how most people receive important updates from their work and school, and sometimes official and time-sensitive documents.

But unlike social media, you can’t mute an account and continue to see their posts. While you can prioritize some emails from specific senders, if it’s not spam, your phone is going to alert you.

If you’ve been holding off on cleaning up your email, this is your reminder. Go through the latest emails and unsubscribe from all newsletters and mailing lists you’re no longer interested in. You should also go through your ‘trash’ folder and unsubscribe from emails you’ve been mass-deleting up until now.

3. Make the Most Out of Your Phone’s Do-Not-Disturb Mode

One way you can avoid notification fatigue is by limiting most of them to a specific time period. Instead of having to rely on countless beeps and buzzes throughout the day, set up your phone’s do not disturb or silent mode to block notifications the majority of work or school day.

That way, when it’s time to check your notifications, they all look new and exciting. You can take your time going through them one by one, ignoring useless ones, and responding to ones that need your attention. Switching on ‘do not disturb’ on your Android phone is almost too easy.

  • Go to Settings > Do not disturb.
  • Switch on the Do not disturb option under General.
  • Through Define priority interruptions, you can control which notification can still go through.

4. Set Custom LED Notification for Different Apps

Maybe you’re the type of person to mute your phone while you’re working or studying. But then you glance at it and see that tantalizing blinking light that indicated you have an unread notification.

Without customization, that light could mean anything. You may ignore it and end up missing out on an important message or email. Other times, you might even cut your workflow in half to check it, and it’s just a game reminding you to play, so you don’t lose your streak.

Luckily, the majority of Android smartphones nowadays allow you to customize your notification indicator light color. That way, even if your phone is on silent, you can tell whether it’s an urgent notification or something you can ignore. Some apps, like WhatsApp, let you customize notification light color form inside the app.

5. Set Custom Ringtones for Different Apps

Notification fatigue takes over by making all notifications sound the same, regardless of urgency. One way you can beat it is by customizing every app’s ringtone. That way, upon hearing the ring, you can decide whether you’re free to check Twitter or not. Or whether it’s a text message from a friend or family member.

Most social media and communication apps let you set a ringtone different from your phone's default notification ringtone. All you have to do is go to the app’s notifications settings and select your preferred ringtone.

Making It Work for You

Notification fatigue hits people differently and in varying degrees. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution that can beat it.

Your best option is to try different solutions and notification customization methods to find what works best. Still, custom apps and settings only work if you have your priorities straight. You need to know which notifications you want to receive and which you don’t.