I’ve been conducting a sort of experiment with myself lately. And I have a feeling it may be helpful for others. And because I love helping others, I’m going to share my results!

I reduced stress in my life when I turned down notifications to my smartwatch.

May not seem super profound, but small steps can lead to change.

A good number of us wear smartwatches. Whether they be Apple, Fitbit, Garmin, Android. There’s a lot of options, and the commonality between them is they connect with our smartphones. There’s no denying that we live in a very connected world. Which can be pretty awesome. It can also be pretty overwhelming.

I wear a smartwatch for two reasons. First, to monitor and be mindful of movement. I like that it counts my steps and stairs. When I work out, it tracks my heart rate. I don’t wear it to bed as sleeping with a watch on just feels uncomfortable. But I know a lot of people enjoy the sleep monitoring. The second reason I wear it is to be connected to my phone when I am unable to answer it when I am in session with my amazing clients. I have kids and I want to be accessible to them (and their caregivers) during the day in an emergency.

I started to notice at the beginning of this year that my smartwatch would distract me from my work when it would buzz multiple times during a session. More often than not, it was emails. (Since I have multiple emails to manage, there can be a lot of emails during the day.) In all honesty, it was getting annoying. Because the smartwatch notification for emails is the same as a text message. My mind would go to “is this an email that I can ignore, or a text from someone important?” I don’t like looking at my watch during a session for a lot of reasons. But being completely disconnected from my phone also didn’t feel good. I asked myself, “how can I find a happy medium?”

I went into my smartwatch app (Garmin, in my case) and found how to toggle notifications. My mind was blown when I saw how many apps had permission to send a notification! I went through the list and turned off everything except for phone calls, text messages, work phone number, and voicemails. Any other notification I can check on my phone when I am able to do so.

The result? Less notifications to my watch, less distractions, less stress.

Pause with me for a second, how often do you get distracted during the day? Are those distractions ‘working’ for you?

In some cases, we need distractions, or redirection. If we are spiraling, using redirection or distractions can help stop the spiral so we can get in a better mindset.

In other cases, distractions are just that- taking our attention away from what is needed, important, or a priority.

Sooo many of us function in a space where our minds are doing or thinking 10,000 things at a time. Sometimes, that’s life. Other times, it’s not necessary and can be more harmful than helpful.

Maybe your notifications on your smartwatch need some tuning. Maybe not. Is there something else in your life that needs tuning or calibration? Something that you can take a break from? Something you can delegate to someone else?

Like I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, small steps can lead to change. Are you needing some sort of change in stress, life, routines, responsibilities, expectations? Is there a small step that you can take to help get that change started?