Digital Downtime:
How to navigate the noise and avoid digital overwhelm
Slack, Email, Zoom, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Groups, WhatsApp, Browser Notifications, Push Notifications, Alarms, Tasks, Keep Notes, Tabs, Bookmarks, Comments, Suggestions…
It can feel like a lot, can’t it?
Let’s look at some features within the applications we use daily that can help you cut through the noise when you are feeling overwhelmed with all the digital traffic.
Contents:
Slack
Pausing Slack Notifications
Need some temporary peace and quiet on Slack?
Pause notifications in Slack for a set amount of time by clicking on your profile image and setting a pause duration.
Slack Notification Schedule
Create a notification schedule to automatically pause notifications at set times or outside of working hours.
Muting a Channel
Need a break from seeing tat in #recycle-chat but can’t bear to leave? Right click a channel and mute it to stop receiving notifications for new posts.
Maybe don’t do this for any important channels though…just in-case you forget to unmute!
Using Status’
Use Status’ in Slack to inform people of your whereabouts. Click on your profile image to update your status. You can choose from a list of pre-made status’, or create your own custom ones (e.g “Having lunch”).
This is a great way to encourage people to not bombard you on Slack or expect an immediate response when you are busy!
Google Calendar/Slack Integration
You can also integrate Google Calendar to work with Slack and automatically update your Slack status to let people know when you are in a meeting.
Go to More, Automations, Apps, and find Google Calendar to set-up and configure.
Save It For Later!
Rather than marking things unread in Slack, use the Save for later function to keep track of messages you intend to reply to later in a more organised manner.
This will add the message to the later menu section where you can mark things in progress, archived, or completed.
Save It For Later: Reminders
You can also make use of reminders in Slack by hovering over a message, selecting the 3 dot more actions menu and choosing Remind me about this.
Calendar: Focus Time Event
Use Focus-Time events to block out time in your Google Calendar as well as (optionally) automatically decline meetings. Time is precious: protect it when you need to!
Google Calendar: Out of Office Event
Add an Out of Office event in Google Calendar to decline new and/or existing meetings when you are away. This can be for a set period of time (e.g 12pm - 1pm), an All Day event, or a Recurring event.
Google Calendar: Out of Office Event
One thing to note here is that Google Calendar Out of Office Events will not trigger your Gmail Out of Office Auto-Replies. It will, however, give a warning that the person you are trying to email is out of office when they are in a Google Calendar Out of Office event.
Gmail: Out of Office AutoReply
In your Gmail settings, set an Out of Office AutoReply to automatically respond to emails when you are away from work.
If you are likely to forget to set this when your mind is already on the beach, you may wish to make use of the UOY Out of Office AppScript tool to automate this process.
Gmail: Labels
Labels in Gmail are Google’s answer to folders in Outlook. They are a neat way to organise your inbox by moving emails to a label, or simply tagging emails in your inbox with a label. They work especially well in conjunction with Filters.
Gmail: Filters
Filters allow you to set rules for incoming emails & then set actions that will occur when emails match those rules.
For example, you could set a filter so that emails with the word Newsletter in the subject has the rule to Apply the label: and to Skip the Inbox (Archive It). This will automatically move any incoming email containing the word “Newsletter” in the subject field to the specified Gmail Label you have set up. You can apply filters to existing emails also as a neat way to tidy up a cluttered inbox!
For more on Filters & Labels in Gmail, visit our Gmail skills guide.
Tasks & Keep
There are plenty of options when it comes to creating your to-do lists. Respectively, both Google Tasks & Keep are good options in that you can easily access them directly from the add-on bar located at the right hand side of Gmail & Calendar. This saves you bouncing in and out of too many places trying to get to your to-do list!
Browser Tab Overload?
Tab Overload
“Sorry just bear with me, I’ve got too many tabs open…”
Many people end up with a ton of browser tabs all open at the same time for fear of losing something or forgetting about it. If we’re honest with ourselves, this usually just makes it far more difficult to ever find the things we actually need and leave us prone to feeling stressed with tab overload! Let’s look at a few things you can do to try and cut the strings and lose that fear of keeping everything open all of the time.
Tab groups
Hold the Shift or Ctrl key to select multiple tabs, right click and choose Add tabs to new group. This creates a new tab group that you can name, move, and collapse to help minimise the visual stress of an abundance of open browser tabs.
Tab groups
You can also free up some room by saving tab groups which can be retrieved at a later time.
Bookmarking
Bookmarking or Favouriting is another simple way of saving tabs you have been reluctant to close.
Look for the star button in the URL bar to bookmark a page. You can also make use of the bookmarks manager and the bookmarks toolbar to help organise these into folders and pin them to a toolbar. This makes it much quicker and easier to access the sites you need regularly (or the ones you keep losing track of!)
Google Drive: Starred
We store thousands of Google Workspace items in Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, Slides etc.) There’s many things you can do to better organise this, but a simple option is to use the Starred function. This effectively bookmarks a Workspace item within Drive itself making it much easier to find things you need regularly.
Google Drive: Starred
All of your Starred items can then easily be found within the Starred menu section. You are not moving anything around in Drive, just giving yourself a quick and easy way into a Google Workspace file or folder you regularly need!
Windows & Mac
Windows: Focus Assist
Focus assist is a feature in Windows 10 that allows you to filter desktop notifications or stop them altogether. You can toggle between priority notifications or alarms only. This is especially useful when sharing your screen on Zoom if you don’t want notifications for emails popping up!
Windows: Multiple Desktops
If you have too many things open at once in Windows and want a blank slate without losing anything, you could open a new desktop. From the Task View button, you can easily add and swap between desktop areas in Windows. This can be great for clearing a bit of digital headspace or maybe using different desktops for different tasks! See Windows 10 support pages for more info.
Mac: Focus Mode
Macs have a similar feature to Windows’ Focus Assist in Focus Mode. You can use this to manage, pause and silence notifications when you need to minimise distractions. Visit Apple’s support pages for more info.
Night Light/Night Shift
Both Windows and Mac have blue-light filtering modes called Night Light and Night Shift respectively. Studies have linked poor sleep to the exposure to blue light in the evening. These modes shift your display colours towards using warmer colours which filters out blue light. It can also ease visual stress and help reduce migraines for some people.
Android & iOS
Do not disturb
You can turn on Do Not Disturb on iPhones and iPads by going to the Control Center within Settings. You can enable this manually or create a schedule if you don’t want to receive any notifications and be disturbed at a certain time
Android also allows you to silence your device with Do Not Disturb. This can be quickly turned on by swiping down from the top of your screen and then tap Do Not Disturb. You also set time rules to automatically turn on Do Not Disturb at certain times.
Reader modes
Have you ever tried reading a local newspaper website? You get hit with cookies, an advert, a pop up, an auto-playing video, another advert…
Reader modes allow you to filter out this visual assault and simply read the written content.
Reader modes
Reader modes are available in many different browsers but may be referred to with different terminology. They are also prone to frequently changing (Google is a particular offender), but see current guidance on how to use:
Push Notifications
Further Guidance
Do you really need that app?
You may be someone who likes to have your work things on your phone, and that’s fine! But do you need everything in all places?
If you already have a work-based application or piece of software installed on your main laptop or device, consider the value of having the exact same thing on your phone vs the drawbacks. Are you going to be tempted to look at work in your much needed downtime? Could choosing to have it installed in only one place give you some digital headroom?
Spring cleaning to clear the clutter
It can be hard to find the motivation to do this, but committing even just a small amount of time to organising your digital spaces can pay dividends in the long run.
Whether it’s ten minutes spent organising your Google Drive, moving scattered files into properly named folders in Windows, or choosing a new inbox type in Gmail: taking time to untangle your digital knots can save you so much time trying to find things in future!
…we all have to switch off at some point.
We love our digital things, but every one of us has a screen-time limit.
So most importantly…