"It's hard to take a nap or get a good night's sleep when your cell phone keeps dinging. It's also hard to focus on your work when there's a buzz from the phone every few seconds."
During a recent Human Factors Training, these were some of the distractions people described. Most of the time the phone notifications were about the company credit card due date or unsolicited sales pitches. Nothing important enough to interrupt sleep or work. Participants wished they could just silence the phone, yet they didn't want to miss important calls like those from dispatch, a parts supplier, or co-worker.
It's very likely that you have experienced a similar dilemma. So here's a possible solution that we want to share with you.
A Solution For Annoying Notifications and Calls
Some of you may not be aware of how useful and versatile the Do Not Disturb mode is. You can schedule it to run during specific times of the day when you know you will be working or sleeping. You can also customize which calls you will and won't allow to come through. You can limit calls to specific family members, a group of contacts, those in your Favorites list, or even Repeated Calls (the same phone number repeated within 3-10 minutes). These functions can keep the phone from interrupting sleep and work but still give the peace of mind that important calls will be heard.
Take a look at these articles to find instructions on how to set and customize the Do Not Disturb mode for the iPhone and for Androids.
We'd also like to share a free download sample of a Safety Meeting Review which focuses on Distractions and the use of cell phones. We provide 12 of these Reviews for departments who take our Human Factors Training as one more way to keep your SMS (Safety Management System) an integral and living part of the safety culture . It helps to keep teams talking about and mitigating the risks posed by the Dirty Dozen. So give our free sample a try at your next Safety Meeting.