Unread Messages
I’ve adopted an “Inbox-Zero” practice for too long but it’s based on my negative association with red dots. Small red dots signify disease. Pimples, measles, mosquito bites… red dots everywhere. That’s how I also feel towards unaddressed notifications that appear on my different devices. They are blemishes on my perfect work surface.
However, the way I’ve addressed this is to funnel as much as possible away from my Inbox. Well over 10 years ago, I setup rules on my Gmail accounts to mark every message as read and turned off as many notifications I could control on my devices. Still, unread notifications pop up and linger in the background.
Any new technology that will help us focus and be more productive is going to have to combat the red dots. It will need to dig into the settings and turn these off, but at the same time address our fears that we won’t be missing anything really critical.
