The exhausting impact of "ping fatigue": how excess notifications are affecting our productivity

The hybrid shift, with between one and four days of remote work, has become the most common model among companies. This flexibility of the day has forced teams to continue using messaging applications such as Microsoft Teams, Slack to communicate with their colleagues, even when they are in the same office.

However, this technological dependence is also generating a disturbing side effect: the so-called “ping fatigue“. This phenomenon describes the mental exhaustion that arises from being constantly interrupted by an endless stream of notifications and messages that fight for your attention and completely break your concentration.

Always connected, but not very productive

The constant interruptions while you try to complete your tasks not only break the necessary concentration, but also seriously affect productivity since recovering the level of concentration can take up to 15 minutes, lengthening the time you need to complete it. That recurring task change will end up exhausting you and stressing you out more than necessary.

According to counted Hannah Yardley, chief people officer at Achievers a WorkLife, this problem is closely linked to “always-on anxiety,” and is where it gets its name from the data signal that devices send to each other to check if they are online.

This anxiety about always being connected occurs when employees feel that they need to always be active, working without breaks and always available to answer an email or any questions that may arise from an employee who, perhaps, is working from another continent.

“It is a stressful time for everyone in the workplace. Employees need to know that they have support from the company and that their teams do not feel the pressure of being constantly online,” said Yardley. “When employees are encouraged to set boundaries between work time and personal life, positive results emerge naturally.”

Strategies to regain control

Faced with this challenge, various strategies emerge to mitigate the impact on productivity staff causing ping fatigue.

James Ware, a consultant specializing in the neuroscience of attention, recommends the implementation of “notification batteries.” Ware’s proposal consists of scheduling blocks of time to review messages at fixed intervals.

For example, you can set your devices to activate “monk mode” while you perform demanding tasks, and schedule a block of time between tasks to review the messages and emails you may have received in that period.

Another notable technique is the “25-5 rule”: working 25 minutes fully concentrated and without interruptions, followed by five minutes of “rest” to review notifications.

“Dividing the workday into blocks of concentration supports the brain’s natural rhythms,” explains Ware. The advisor agrees in his recommendation with Tony Schwartz, CEO of Energy Project. Schwartz conceives work sessions as a sprint race in which he applies all his energy to completing a task in a short period of time, and then take a breakinstead of dedicating several hours in a row to the same task.

This method not only improves productivity by providing rest time for the brain between tasks, but also reduces the stress associated with a never-ending stream of messages.

Concentration technology

In addition to making constant interruptions possible, technology also has tools to stop them.

Corina Leslie, public relations director for email verification platform ZeroBounce, told WorkLife that she used an application on her computer to block notifications during intervals 45 minutes. “My daily goal is to achieve three hours of deep work. When I achieve this, I notice a significant improvement in my productivity,” Leslie shares.

Both Windows 11 and MacOS have concentration modes integrated into the operating system itself that silence any type of notification for a certain period of time, so you can use these tools to avoid unwanted distractions that break your concentration without having to silence applications one by one.

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Image | Unsplash (Austin Distel)