I am enjoying my summer vacation. It’s nice being retired, and not having a corporation and its employees and a thousand or so patients relying on me. It’s nice that my sons are adults, and I no longer have to worry (as much) about an emergency call from a care provider. Of course I miss some of it, but overall it’s just so much easier to relax.
One thing I hadn’t fully realized was the stress caused by notifications. Not just annoying beeps or intrusive banners, but even just the little numbered badges that show up on icons. I’d always worked to minimize them, and was often annoyed at the way every new app or website or OS release seemed to add more of them.
The biggest surprise was when I turned off badging for email. Honestly, I should have done it long ago. The number of times that a notification made much difference for a patient or family members was absolutely dwarfed by the number of times that the notifications interrupted my flow and resulted in much more frequent (if less dramatic) impact on the lives for whom I was caring. I still check my email far too often and rarely does an email go unseen for more than space of minutes, but I’m much more productive — and relaxed — in other aspects of my life.
—2p