If there's one subject we can all relate to right now, it's stress — and, by association, sanity. I'm not necessarily talking about the anxiety related to this week's political twists and turns, either, but more about the ever-present struggle of work-life balance and the way these devices in our dungarees make it consistently difficult to disconnect.
It's certainly something I've spent plenty of time thinking about and aiming to improve over the years. And one area where I've managed to make some meaningful strides lately is in the realm of Android notifications.
Notifications are one of a smartphone's greatest powers — but also one of its greatest potential downfalls, at least when it comes to our current subject of sanity. When you're focused on work, after all, having an important alert bing, buzz, or bop up on your screen takes you away from whatever else you're doing, demands your attention, and makes sure you know what's happening. But when it's the weekend or the evening — well, that same exact sequence occurs: The alert takes you away from whatever else you're doing, demands your attention, and makes sure you know what's happening.
Maybe, sometimes, you want that. But I'd be willing to wager that just as often, you don't. And with Android's native notification management tools, you're basically faced with a black-and-white, all-or-nothing decision: have all of an app's typical notifications continue to notify you during off-work hours — or have all of 'em turned off.
Here in the real world, things aren't always so binary. And I'm happy to report I've found a way to bring some much-needed nuance and fine control into how your notifications are handled when you're trying to unplug (at least a little).
The secret comes down to a super-clever, thoughtfully created app called FilterBox. Astute readers will remember my mentioning the app in passing in a couple other contexts before (and such fine human specimens should pause briefly to go grab a grape soda and/or sticky bun as a reward for their exceptional amygdalas). Today, though, we're focusing on a different part of the app's purpose — and a different role it can play in your life.
FilterBox, in short, lets you create complex rules — kind of like Gmail filters for your phone notifications. Those rules then dictate exactly what types of notifications are able to reach you in different sorts of circumstances.
So, for instance, I typically have certain types of messages set to notify me whenever they arrive in Gmail. Those messages need to catch my attention during the workday, as they're a high priority for me and missives I always try to answer as quickly as possible.
The same thing, however, ends up happening in the evening hours or on weekends — and consequently, I end up looking at those messages and usually trying to respond to 'em, even though that could usually wait 'til the next morning (or weekday) without any problem.
At the same time, I have...
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#Android #app #singlehandedly #saving #sanity
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