We live in an age of notifications. Our phones, laptops, watches and the clock on the bedside table all keep notifying us about one thing or the other. It doesn’t take a great imagination to see how the constant deluge of notifications could be distracting. A Harvard Business Review report says an average employee checks e-mail seventy-four times per day and gets forty-six notifications on their phones in a single day. And that was two years back. One can imagine the numbers to be higher today.

A key problem is such constant distraction forces employees to switch their attention. Getting back to their task at hand would require some time, whenever they focus on a notification. Studies show productivity loss of up to forty per cent happens due to such task-switching.

The logical assumption- for improving productivity would be to turn off all notifications. But here is the curious thing: turning off notifications completely has been found to increase anxiety among employees rather than de-stressing and helping them focus on the work at hand.

The problem is an enemy we are familiar with in the internet age: the fear of missing out. This is especially true in the current times when many are working remotely. In such a scenario, missing a notification may mean missing an important meeting update or a message about a new project launch.

So, if notifications distract and they cannot be turned off, what can be done? One idea is to put them to good use. We call these smart notifications.

Instead of distracting, these could empower the workforce to be even more productive. I’m Productive brings such smart messages to each team member to aid them towards better productivity.

But what makes a notification smart? Before we answer that, let’s look at some examples of the smart notifications you get in I’m Productive.

Examples of I’m Protective’s smart notifications

‘Congrats! You have reached your productivity goal today’- Each team member sets a productivity goal for their day and once they achieve it, a message congratulates them on the same.

‘You are working more than your estimated time’- A reminder that someone is continuing to work beyond the estimated time in which they were supposed to finish a task. This helps them reorient themselves and expedite the task.

‘Sorry, you cannot work on multiple tasks at the same time’- ‘Multitasking’ is a term that’s used a lot these days. But the fact remains that the human brain views two different tasks as two different tasks. This means, it will have to constantly switch back and forth, which hampers productivity. Keeping this in view, I’m Productive delivers this message whenever it is relevant.

‘Your productivity for this week is too low’- A straightforward reminder, based on the number of hours a team member worked during the week.

What makes I’m Productive’s notifications smart?

Three elements make I’m Productive’s notifications smart. These are given below.

Personalized

By personalized, what’s meant here is not that the message should include the person’s name or something similar in nature. We all know the notifications we receive on our phones from brands, that start with our names. But when was the last time such messages actually felt personal?

What’s meant here is that the notification should be based on data that is relevant to the individual who is receiving it. For instance, consider someone working longer than is required of them. If they receive a message saying “Great job! Keep going!”, it could be taken to mean that the company appreciates them only if they over-work.

I’m Productive makes sure that whatever message someone receives is pertaining to data that’s unique to them.

Understand

Smart notifications are never truly smart unless they are easy to understand.

The information you provide should be relevant and straightforward. The use of these notifications is to nudge the team member to take appropriate actions based on a message. If the message itself is hard to decipher, that is obviously not possible. In fact, complex messages can have the opposite effect on empowering the person. If they take the inability to understand the message as a personal drawback, then, you have a demoralized team member in your hand.

I’m Productive to ensure such unwanted scenarios don’t arise. It brings messages that are succinct, expressed in as few and meaningful words as possible.

Timely

As mentioned before, the main purpose of smart notifications is to nudge the team members towards taking positive actions to help them maintain or improve productivity. But for this to happen, the messages should be delivered at the right time to the right person. For example, if someone is falling behind in work and a deadline is looming up, they should be informed of it before it’s too late. Otherwise, a heightened speed of working may not make any significant difference. In such cases, the old adage of a stitch in time is truer than anywhere else.

I’m Productive makes sure that the notifications your team members receive are not only relevant to them but are timely. These messages become actionable precisely because they are delivered at the right time.