You’re constantly checking your phone for work updates. Is it possible to find a balance?

I find the Eisenhower matrix a very useful way to establish where something sits on the urgent/important axis, then i do the most urgent and important things, i make sure i have time for the not urgent and important things, i delegate or automate the urgent but not important things, and i discard the rest.

For each workday I define my "One Thing Today" (OTT). This is the one big task I want to work focused on (usually 2-3 hours) and that is more important than most other things. When receiving non-urgent requests and when I did not complete my OTT yet, I have my priorities straight and can more easily defer the request to later in the day.

Removing notifications from your phone, in particular for work items, is fundamental to sticking to any schedule you set. Build in time within your day to check email. Cal Newport calls this “office hours” and I think this is an effective way to look at it. By simply switching off notifications, you are far less likely to drift from your task on account of being distracted. The other thing I would do is make your schedule public. Make sure your colleagues understand when you’re not available, and importantly when you are. If you are a leader, make sure you dedicate time to each of your team 1-to-1 at least once a week. Set clear expectations that anything not urgent and important can wait for the 1-to-1.

I schedule my day with regards to focus and collaborative activites. In my calendar, I add blocks of focus, with time in-between to check my messages and for ad-hoc conversations. During focus time, my Teams and Slack-status is set to "do not disturb" to automatically mute notifications. For all of that I am using a neat software, FlowTeams, to effectively schedule focus time and sync my status to all the different communication apps.

I set clear expectations with customers that i will endeavour to acknowledge their email within 48 hours, preferably with a substantive answer. Anyone who needs to call me has my phone number. I encourage leaving voicemails so I can triage and screen unknown numbers. With my team, I make sure I have scheduled time with each of them 1:1 at least once a week. Anything not urgent and important (i.e on fire) can wait for the 1:1. That is their time to ask questions and seek advice. Finally if I am sent a meeting without an agenda, I clarify my expected participation and will decline if I am not necessary. Time is the most precious resource and it is the one thing we waste more than anything else.

In my team, we discuss our expectations regarding responsiveness. For example, if something is really urgent, we initiate a (phone or MS Teams) call. For things that (ideally) require a response within a day, we send a chat message. Finally, for things that require more time/thought and can be responded asynchronously, we send emails with the expectation of answering within about a week. For exchanging availabilities (for questions/interruptions) within our team, we're using FlowTeams, a software that collects availability information from calendars and chat/collaboration apps, and visualizes a quick overview of the team's work schedule.

Personally, I disabled all notifications on my smartphone by setting it to "do not disturb". I have a few exceptions for family members. On the computer, I am using a more fine-granular approach by temporarily muting notifications during focused work sessions by enabling the "do not disturb" on my computer and/or communication apps. Important is that I don't have to keep changing my status manually, since I will forget doing that after a while. Thus, using tools (such as FlowTeams) that can automatically sense your focus state based on computer interaction or infer your focus state from calendar and communication apps is useful for long-term adoption.

When trying to get into difficult or not-so-engaging tasks, I often feel myself drawn to my phone to read-up on news or other articles online. The simplest solution to take a break from my phone was to keep it out of reach during work, e.g. on another room or my bag. Now, when I realize that I need a break, I do (most) breaks away from the screen, such as a quick walk, stretch, or read a few pages in a book. Finally, taking breaks from the phone outside of work hours is crucial to let my eyes and mind relax and recover. Again, having your phone away from quick access is super effective for me.