It's Week 2, Changing Your Habits!
In which Catherine tells me that my smartphone is an emotional and physical cue for me to reach for it when I'm bored (my lizard-brain response to boredom) so that I can not be bored anymore (my reward). And the way that response is hard-wired into us can't necessarily be eliminated, but it can be modified.
That brings us to today, Day 8: Say "No" to Notifications. Catherine points out that our phone notifications are a little like the ringing bell in Pavlov's dog experiment. We are so preoccupied with the next notification that we are driven to distraction when we're even near our phones. I agree with her that this may be the reason I used to get phantom buzzes from my phone all the time.
So today's the day that I eliminate all push notifications from my phone, except for phone calls and (if I want, and I don't) messaging apps and my calendar. So to clarify: I will only get notifications from my phone ringer and my calendar (and, as previously mentioned, RubiconMD). Catherine says that since those notifications represent a chance for interaction with a real-life human, we can leave them on. Agreed. Done. Done weeks ago, actually. But it felt good then, and I don't regret it.
