Every phone ping takes 7 seconds of your attention heres how to get it back

Date:
Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:53:43 +0000

Description:
Notifications steal seven seconds of your focus according to a new study, but there are ways to avoid this.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter A new study has found that each notification can distract you for around seven seconds The more personally relevant the notification is, the more
distracting it is Phones have tools to help address this, such as focus modes and other settings You probably dont need a study to tell you that smartphone notifications can be distracting, but it seems theyre even more distracting than you might think.

According to a new report that will be published in the June issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior (via CNET ), every time you get a message notification on your phone, it interrupts your attention for around seven seconds. Given how many notifications you likely get in a day with study participants for example receiving around 100 a day that can really add up. The study consisted of getting 180 university students to do a Stroop task that being a test that involves colored words flashing on a screen. The words spell one color and appear in another, and the goal is to correctly identify the font color, ignoring whats written. Article continues below You may like Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra's Privacy Display could hold a social problem 7 settings I change on every Apple Watch for a 'calmer, clearer, and more useful' experience 7 privacy tips for your Android device to avoid prying
eyes

Researchers split participants into three groups one which received generic social media notifications on the screen while carrying out the test, one which was told the notifications mirrored those on their phone, and one which had blurred notifications appearing with illegible text. The iPhone 17 Pro
has Focus modes to limit notifications (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) In all cases, it was found that each notification affected their attention
for around seven seconds, but the effect was most pronounced among the group who believed the notifications mirrored those on their phone showing that more personally relevant notifications are more distracting.

Hippolyte Fournier, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and the study's first author, told CNET that "we observed that both the volume of notifications and how often individuals check their smartphones were linked to greater disruption."

"This pattern suggests that the fragmented nature of smartphone use, rather than simply total usage duration, may be a key factor in understanding how digital technologies influence attentional processes." Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Tools to tackle it So how to address this? One obvious answer is to limit the ability for notifications to reach you. On iPhone, this can be done through Focus modes, which let you customize which apps will send notifications when a specific mode (such as work or sleep) is active.

Depending on your Android phone you may have similar tools there too, such as the Digital Wellbeing tools (which also includes focus modes) on Pixel
phones, or a basic Do Not Disturb setting.

If there are some apps that you never want notifications from, you could also permanently disable notifications for specific apps, through that apps
section of your phones settings menu. What to read next Ive disabled this iOS 26 Apple Intelligence feature, and you probably should too Focused work in a distracted world my one secret weapon for staying on task These 7 hidden iOS features have transformed how I use my iPhone

You may also want to look into how notifications are displayed, with many phones allowing you to choose how prominent they are or where they appear these options are typically found in the notifications section of a phones settings menu.

You could also distance yourself from your phone, putting it in another room for example when youre working, though if youre wearing a smartwatch that
wont stop notifications appearing on your wrist, and while the study didnt look at wearables, wed imagine the impact is similar. Today's best phone
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/every-phone-ping-takes-7-seconds-of-your-atte ntion-heres-how-to-get-it-back


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