Not being online for a couple of hours might be quite a stressful experience. Am I missing some important news? Has anyone texted me? Are my friends planning something together and I don’t know about it because I haven’t seen the message?
Sounds familiar? FOMO, which stands for fear of missing out, is a feeling known to most of us. With so much information waiting in the truly endless social media feeds, there is a constant feeling of something exciting happening just behind the corner but not in our lives.
Add the neverending spur of notifications from every app possible, and here we are: trying hard to focus on work while worrying about everything that is not happening to us.
Maybe we could turn the notifications off and get no distractions at all? Well, then we can’t really know when someone is trying to reach us. Apple decided to make this struggle easier and help us organize our time better in the new iOS version.
Focus mode
So how can iOS 15 aid us with managing our time online better? First of all, by regulating the notifications, we get. Let’s face it, most often, it is that one message that makes us open Instagram, and then we spend a solid 30 minutes there.
Now we can regulate which apps can send us notifications at any given time. Don’t want to get work messages from Slack at 10 pm? Then you can switch to the Personal mode. There are suggested Focus modes that use on-device intelligence to choose your notification range, or you can create the custom ones to get a better digital experience. Maybe you want to set “On holiday” mode and get messages from your closest family and friends only?
Focus is a way to separate your personal and professional lives with just one click. There is no need to fully disconnect from the digital world — you can simply choose which application can and can’t send you notifications.
There is one more perk in the newly introduced Focus feature. People texting you can also see your current mode, so they will know for sure that you won’t get their message now and understand that maybe it is better to text you later. What about emergencies? Well, then there is a “Notify anyway” button, which will get the message delivered to you no matter your settings.
Home Screen customization
Now, when you can decide on the messages on your screen, you may also choose which apps and widgets to see there. You might have heard about the new digital minimalism trend. With so much information flooding us from numerous sources, it makes sense that we are trying to limit our consumption.
With the customizable home screen pages, it is possible to have all the necessary tools handy while not overwhelming yourself with too many applications inviting you to click on them. No distractions, no temptations.
The home screen is connected to your current Focus settings. For example, when working, you can have immediate access to the apps you need for productivity: you can answer emails right away and not get lost in countless messengers on your phone. At the same time, while having a day off or just a calm evening, you might want the Books app to be the only thing on your Home screen page.
Notification summary
The Focus mode can bring you more concentration and reduce distractions. At the same time, it might cause anxiety, that very fear of missing out. Let’s say that you are not receiving messages from your friends during office hours. Makes sense. But that can also get you thinking: “What if they are planning something for the evening and I am missing the discussion?”
No worries. If you are not getting notifications, it doesn’t mean that you won’t see the messages at all. In iOS 15, Apple introduced the notification summary feature. You can set a certain time daily, or maybe even every hour, when you get a summary of all the messages on your home screen. As simple as that, you can view everything at once and be sure that you are on top of things.
Of course, let’s not forget about the notifications that might require your attention right now, such as a delivery waiting for you. These messages are treated differently — they can break through your settings and get your immediate consideration.
Staying focused
And that’s how it goes: now even our phones are doing everything possible to let us get the most from both working hours and free time. iOS 15 gives us all the tools to balance between constantly checking our phones because of the buzzing and having a fear of missing out. It is only up to us how to use these new tools wisely.
Surely, that’s not the only great feature of iOS 15: the new version allows us to have a better experience FaceTiming each other, retrieve texts directly from the images, get a more precise Maps navigation, and much more — all the details in this article.