Ask HN: Notification Overload
fractal618 Tuesday, January 27, 2026I'm looking for tools or methods to better curate the deluge and cacophony of notifications, emails, texts and phone calls I imagine we are all getting inundated with everyday with increasing entropy and volume.
The amount of "notifications" I get everyday is overwhelming to the point where I often decide to switch my phone to "silent", leave my phone in another room, and even turn it off for periods of time. The problem with this is that I miss important things and they often get buried.
I've spent hours and hours unsubscribing, deleting, uninstalling, toggling settings, but then I find myself reinstalling, resubscribing. It's just a mess, and exhausting to just think about.
The reason I'm writing this is partially to vent. I just realized that my closest friend's birthday was a few weeks ago. I had it in my calendar, but never saw the notification. Yes, I should be more organized and Yes, it's not the end of the world. but damnit, i get so much crap from this bionic appendage, and still I cant use this tool to help me with remembering important things.
It just seems like its getting worse every year.
Hopefully this is helpful to others.
P.S. can we please stop with the "would you like all or some cookies" popup on every friggin website?
P.P.S. can websites stop asking for permission to invade my OS?
P.P.P.S. does anyone else ever want to run away and be an off-grid hermit?