MARK STRUCZEWSKI

I get asked about notifications a lot.

So in this post, I’m going to share my thoughts of what notifications you should and should not have enabled on your phone.

How many notifications should you have enabled?

Short answer: as few as possible.

Translation: not all of them!

Notifications are distractions.

Think about how many times your phone dings, bings, swooshes, or vibrates over the course of a day.

Let me ask it another way: what would other people think? If you don't know, ask them. Or look around when your phone starts to make noise.

Before we get too far

There are many types of notifications (at least on the iPhone):

• Banners - pop up on your lock screen
• Sounds
• Badges - that little number in a circle that tells you how many unread messages you have
• Notification Center - on the iPhone, your notifications show up here if you have it selected. These are separate from the lock screen pop-ups.

You don't have to have them all enabled.

I don’t...