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I thought turning off notifications would make me miss everything. Instead, it showed me how much of my attention had already been scheduled by apps, emails, promos, DMs and tiny red badges.

With more than a decade of experience, Nelson covers Apple and Google and writes about iPhone and Android features, privacy and security settings, and more.

12 min read

The first thing I noticed was the silence.

I woke up, reached for my iPhone and found nothing waiting for me. No Slack messages stacked on top of Gmail alerts. No Instagram likes to feed my ego. No Apple News headline to spike my cortisol. No Uber Eats promo. No Amazon deals. No little red-numbered accusations telling me I had already fallen behind before I could gather my thoughts and wash my face.

My lock screen was blank. Not "quiet" in the way Do Not Disturb makes it temporarily quiet, where everything is still piling up behind a curtain, waiting for you to turn the world back on.…