The Non-Distracting Nature of Notifications
I had long assumed that notifications, like those served up by Growl, would be distracting. After all, how should I be able to concentrate while being bombarded with pretty little updates on everything from what song just started playing to what that latest IM said to how many new articles NetNewsWire has decided to throw in my face?
Ok, I admit that the NetNewsWire notifications are distracting (I’ll turn them off as soon as I’m done writing this post), but most of them aren’t so bad. There is one, though, that I have found, somewhat counterintuitively, to actually be conducive to staying focused: the new email notification.
The reason is that even without Growl notifications I’m going to be made aware of any new email by the dock icon badge. That is what makes it impossible to ignore. The vast majority of the email I receive is not important, but what if this one is? The curiosity is just too much to handle, and the act of stopping what I’m doing to check that new email is very disruptive. With a notification that tells me the sender, subject, and first little bit of the body, though, without even moving my mouse or stopping what I’m doing I know that I can safely ignore that email.
Who knew that more information could actually help keep you focused?
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