If you ever call me and I don't answer, it's not because I'm avoiding you or not interested in talking; it's probably because I've got my phone set to DND or Do Not Disturb. Like many people I talk to these days, I find that we're all so overstimulated with every single notification, ding, ping, ring, and more.
I even got rid of my Apple Watch as I was tired of constantly feeling a vibration on my wrist each time a news alert popped up or my garage door opened.
Simply put, we're all on overload each and every day with constant noise and eventually it starts to drain us. By the time the day is done, we've seen thousands of blips come across our face that brings our energy down and leaves us feeling like we're being pushed and shoved in millions of different directions.
At some point I started asking myself a simple question that most of us probably should ask more often, which is why am I allowing every single app, company, news alert, and random notification to have access to my attention all day long? The reality is that none of those things actually care what you're trying to accomplish that day, and none of them care whether you're focused, rested, or mentally drained. Their job is simply to get your attention, and if you haven't taken control of that yourself, they will happily occupy every available second of it.
The strange part about modern life is that we talk endlessly about productivity and burnout, yet we rarely acknowledge the role that constant stimulation plays in exhausting us before the day even really gets going.
If your phone lights up fifty times before lunch with emails, breaking news alerts, social media updates, sports scores, and random apps asking for your attention, you are essentially allowing a crowd of strangers to interrupt your train of thought over and over again. Eventually your brain starts to feel like a crowded airport terminal where everyone is talking at once and nobody can hear themselves think.
What I have found over time is that the moment you start putting guardrails around those interruptions, something interesting begins to happen, which is that you slowly get your focus back. When the phone stops lighting up every two minutes and the watch stops vibrating on your wrist like a tiny alarm system, you suddenly notice that your mind has room to breathe again. Instead of constantly reacting to someone else's agenda, you can actually sit with a thought long enough to finish it, which is something that feels strangely rare in today's world.
This is also where you start to realize that burnout is not always about working too many hours or taking on too much responsibility, because a lot of the time it is about the endless stream of distractions that fragment your attention throughout the day. When you are constantly pulled away from whatever you're doing, even small tasks begin to feel exhausting because you never get the satisfaction of finishing them with your full attention.
The irony is that the moment you reduce that noise, the same workload often feels far more manageable because your brain is no longer sprinting in twenty different directions.
So when you see that little Do Not Disturb icon on my phone, it is not a sign that I do not want to talk to people or that I am trying to disconnect from the world entirely. It is simply my way of deciding when the world gets access to my attention instead of letting every notification decide that for me. And the more you take control of those little interruptions that fill up your day, the more energy you seem to get back for the things that actually matter, whether that is your work, your family, or simply a quiet moment where your mind is allowed to slow down for a change.