Welcome to week 5 of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a sustainable living tip for the week. This week: turning off notifications, the ultimate eco-friendly Valentine’s gift, Marie Kondo’s big admission, and refusing to buy bottled water.
The Sunday Spark – Week 5
On my mind this week: Turning off notifications
If you’re old enough to remember the early 2000s, what do you remember about your life back then? In 2003, my older daughter turned three and my younger daughter was born, so I remember that time well. These days, I often think how much the world has changed compared to just 20 years ago.
I read this week that local Waterloo Region company Blackberry invented the push notification in 2003. Before that, we weren’t constantly inundated with beeps, swooshes, or whatever sounds we’ve chosen for our devices. No electronic message was so important that it needed to interrupt our day.
Do we really need all those notifications?
Initially heralded as a time saver, I do believe the push notification changed our lives. Sadly, unlike other technological advances, it didn’t change our lives for the better.
These days, every time our phones buzz, we take our attention away from the task at hand or, even worse, the people we’re with. And the silly thing is most of those notifications are useless. Do we really need to stop what we’re doing to look at the latest photo our friend posted, play the next move in our Words With Friends game, or see who has liked or commented on our post?
This week, I decided to simplify my life by turning off almost all the notifications on my phone and tablet. I’m enjoying the additional peace and tranquility and I haven’t missed anything important.
Are you ready to stop being at the mercy of the distraction devil? Take a few minutes to review the notification settings on your devices. Then, turn off any notifications that don’t add value to your life.
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Three highlights of the week
It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- I made a short trip to Chicago to attend a committee meeting for my professional association. It was a productive meeting. We reviewed over 100 presentation proposals for this year’s conference, and I had the opportunity to reconnect with several long-time colleagues and friends, and meet some new ones.
- There was a beautiful red cardinal on our bird feeder earlier this week. Cardinals are my favourite birds, and they always brighten the landscape in winter.
- The sun finally reappeared this week after a dreary January. It has been extremely cold this week, but it’s so good to see the sunshine. Fear not though: Wiarton Willie—our groundhog weather forecaster—didn’t see his shadow so apparently we’re going to have an early spring. But Willie has been wrong before. Stay tuned!
Three things I learned this week
Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:
Gift a tree for Valentine’s Day
Forests are the Earth’s second largest carbon sink, after oceans. What’s really alarming is that 80% of the world’s forests have been cleared or destroyed. This week I heard about Ecotree—a company that’s doing something about this environmental problem.
If you’re looking for a creative and Earth-friendly gift for Valentine’s Day, consider Ecotree. You can buy or gift a tree and track its progress in your online account. When Ecotree eventually cuts the tree for sustainable timber use, 100% of the profit goes back to the tree’s owner.
Sounds way better than a heart-shaped box of overpriced chocolates!
Marie Kondo is embracing messiness?
If you’re a regular reader, you may recall that I’m not a big fan of Marie Kondo’s hardline approach to decluttering. While it might work for some, her approach doesn’t feel realistic for most people, and it’s definitely not for me.
This week, a headline caught my eye that Marie has now acknowledged that her home is messy these days? What has changed since she wrote her famous book Tidying Up? Marie is now the mom of three children.
No matter which approach you take to decluttering, if your home doesn’t fit your life, you won’t succeed. When your kids are small, mess is inevitable. I’m happy to see Marie acknowledge that.
Biggest CO2 culprits
Did you know that 55% of the world’s CO2 emissions come from just four countries: China (30%), USA (13%), India (7%), and Russia (5%)? These emissions are disproportionate to the population of those countries at 18%, 4%, 18% and 2% respectively. (Source: Down to Earth)
Sustainable living tip: Reusable water bottles
One of the simplest things you can do for the environment is refusing to buy bottled water. It’s overpriced and unnecessary and it isn’t any cleaner or safer than plain old tap water. In fact, unlike the water that comes out of your tap, what goes into those single-use plastic bottles is not regulated or tested.
During my trip to Chicago this week, I thought about how lucrative bottled water sales must be for airport stores. I simply refuse to pay $5 or more for a bottle of water. When I travel, I carry an empty water bottle in my carry-on and fill it at a water bottle filling station like this one after I’ve passed through airport security.
I drink a lot of water, so this simple change saves me at least $20-$30 on every trip, not to mention saving several water bottles from the landfill. Multiply that by the millions of passengers travelling through the world’s airports every day, and you can imagine the impact.
If you’re not yet in the habit of carrying a reusable water bottle with you, make that your goal for this week. You’ll save money and reduce waste.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas. And let me know if you’ll be taming the distraction devil by turning off notifications on your devices.
Ha! I’ve always had notifications off, especially for social media. I do leave emails on though, because there have been quite a few important emails that I didn’t expect to get, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss those. Calendar too, for appointments and such. Other than that, we’d all do well to be notification-free!
It’s funny you posted this comment today, Stuart. If I had responsed this morning, I would have said I rarely receive emails that are important. This afternoon, my daughter texted me and said “OMG Twins!” When I replied “What?” she said “Check your email!” There was an email from my niece that I hadn’t read yet announcing that she is expecting twins. Still the vast majority of my emails don’t need immediate attention…and I can always rely on my daughter to tell me about those that are. LOL
Calendar notifications, on the other hand, are critical!
My college campus has installed those awesome refill stations in both the student union area and in many of the buildings and I so love that it promotes a sustainable mindset, especially as I am based in Tucson and water is essential to my daily life. 🙂
That is so good to hear, Layla. I’m happy to see these refill stations when I’m out and about. Too often we take water for granted.
I’ve turned off most of my notifications. It’s much quieter for me!
It’s amazing what a difference it makes!
It’s funny but I almost never use notifications. My alarm clock, timers when needed, and things that need to get done in a timely fashion like buy milk. I never understood why people want to be pinged all the time
You’ve hit on an important point. Reminders and notifications should be helpful and not distracting. I’d be lost without my calendar notifications!
Exactly! I knew I needed to buy milk the other day, after an appointment so I needed the beep to make sure I went to the store on my way home
Notifications can be exciting or depressing. I turn them off a lot. As long as I remember my alarm.
I think the key is to use them wisely. I still keep my alarms and calendar notifications.