An app can ask for permission to interrupt you long before you know how you will use it. Months later, alerts arrive for a service you barely remember installing.
Look at the notifications from one ordinary day. For each type, ask what you do when it appears and whether timing matters. A reminder for an imminent appointment has a different purpose from an announcement you could read when you next open the app.
Change one noisy source
Start with a source whose alerts you routinely dismiss. Check the app's settings for categories, schedules or a digest before turning everything off. Preserve messages required for safety, care or agreed work responsibilities.
After a few days, see whether you missed anything useful. You can restore a category that earned its place. Also tell people which channel to use for an urgent request if they previously relied on repeated alerts. The goal is a set of interruptions you understand and can act on, adjusted to your actual circumstances rather than a borrowed rule about always being reachable.
