I once counted my notifications: over a hundred a day, and the ones I actually needed in that moment came to fewer than ten. The other ninety were calls to come look at the phone. So I chose what to keep first, and switched off the rest.
Choosing what to keep is faster than choosing what to switch off, and five categories cover the keeping: messages a human personally sent, calendar events and alarms, live transactions like payments and deliveries, anything about your kid and family, and verification codes. A notification outside those five is an app calling you, not something you needed. App by app takes 30 minutes: everything off, then the five back on, takes 10.
One criterion: if missing this causes trouble within 30 minutes, it stays. Otherwise it goes. Sorted that way, eight apps survived at my house: more than forty had been sending. I try to get my phone into the drawer after nine, and a buzz from inside the drawer used to pull it back out. What I found there was mostly recommended videos.
| Keep | Examples | Switch off |
|---|---|---|
| Messages a human sent you | Calls, texts, one-on-one chats | Group rooms, open chats, likes and comments |
| Calendar and alarms | Events, alarms, medication times | An app's weekly suggestions, habit-app cheerleading |
| Live transactions | Payment approvals, delivery arrivals, ride arrivals | Coupons, sales, back-in-stock alerts |
| Kid and family | School and daycare apps, the family chat | New-post alerts from parenting forums |
| Verification codes | Identity texts, two-factor apps | A security app's weekly digest, feature announcements |
The left column is what you're waiting for. The right column is what makes you wait on the app. A week after the right column goes quiet, you forget it existed.
Both platforms list every app under Settings, then Notifications: open each and flip the allow switch. Some apps deserve a half-measure though: news but only breaking, shopping but only shipping.
Badges, the red numbers on icons, are notifications too. Sound off but badge on, and every glance at the home screen is still a summons. I switch badges off even on the five kept kinds. Quieter that way.
A month after the cleanup, notifications drift back: new installs default to on, updates sprout new channels.
The last item was me. With the notifications all quiet, the no-reason pickups finally showed in plain view, and those needed a different tool.
Cleanup cuts how often the phone calls you. What's left is the hand that reaches unprompted. Start a 30-minute dive in Sumbi and your remaining breath shrinks only while another app opens, and an incoming call is never counted as surfacing. The five kept notification kinds arrive as usual, while the hand alone learns to stay down.
Try your first 10-minute dive →App by app through forty apps is forty rounds. Reverse it: switch all notifications off in Settings, then re-enable only the apps matching the five kinds. Anything wrongly silenced announces itself within days, by its absence. I did my first cleanup this way and re-enabled the bank two days later.
Most messenger noise is group rooms. Long-press the room, mute it, and the one-on-ones keep arriving. If the work group should only ring during work hours, pair it with a Focus or Do Not Disturb schedule.
Cleanup isn't a one-time act: new apps and updates re-arm things. Once a month, one morning, read the overnight pile on the lock screen. Anything outside the five kinds gets switched off on the spot. Five minutes.
The first days after the cleanup were strangely empty: a quiet phone made me wonder what I was missing, and I checked more, not less. A week later the emptiness turned into quiet. In between, I had missed exactly nothing.
Menu names and locations can vary a little by device model and software version. This article is general information, not medical advice.
Sumbi