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How iOS 15 Helps Us Focus Better
You have probably already heard about the new iOS version. The most curious users can even be beta testers of iOS 15 to learn about all the updates firsthand. Among other features (which we discussed here), one of the most important changes in this version is the focus on the user’s productivity.
It is not all that surprising: with all that was happening in the past two years, we had to learn to work from home and set apart our professional and personal lives. For many of us work-life balance is now limited to closing the work-related tabs on our laptops and turning the notifications off.
iOS 15 gives us even more power in controlling our digital environment. Let’s review how the new Focus tool will help you work and rest better.
First of all, with the Focus, you can choose various modes to determine what kind of notifications you want to get at any given time. For example, if you select the Work mode, you might get messages from Slack, your email, or Microsoft Teams. At the same time, getting notifications from Instagram or Twitter can be distracting, so you may choose to turn those off.
After all the work is done, you can change your Work mode into the Personal one, and everything is vice versa: no more work-related notifications, but you are now are receiving messages from your friends.
It is important to remember that it is up to you which apps can send notifications and which do not. Maybe you are a social media manager and need to get Instagram messages during your office hours?
One more aspect of Focus that will make you more productive is letting people know that your notifications are silenced. In this way, anyone willing to send you a message can know that you won’t see it right away.
Such a tool helps us with better communication: you won’t get distracted by notifications or purposefully ignore the messages. Before sending a message to someone who is not currently available, we can now consider getting in touch later or scheduling a message.
If you don’t get a specific notification because of your Focus settings, it doesn’t mean that you won’t see it at all. You will get a summary daily, or when you want to, so there is no chance of missing out on anything.
Such a summary gives us a chance to balance the constant distractions and FOMO (the fear of missing out). While you are not getting messages all the time, there is also a possibility to check all the notifications at once when needed.
In a world full of distractions, our phones are both our friends and enemies. That’s why we are now paying more attention to regulating what information we share and get. No wonder Apple is addressing these concerns and allowing its users to control their digital environment more.
Of course, making us more productive is not the only spotlight of iOS 15. For example, the Apple team also enhanced the users’ data privacy and made our browsing experience more comfortable. If interested, you can read about these updates in this article.
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