How to Turn Off Email Notifications: Step-by-step Guide

Notifications help you monitor your emails and reply to the important ones on time. However, these notifications can become a nuisance if you get too much. Luckily, if constant email notifications are bothering you, you can turn them off. This article will show the ways to turn off email notifications on different devices.

Why Turn Off Email Notifications?

Statistics indicate that the average person receives around 100 emails per day, which averages to one email every 14 minutes. For some, the number can be much higher than that. Receiving alerts for every single email gets distracting and annoying. Constant notifications may disrupt your workflow and cause anxiety and stress. They can also cause information overload, which isn’t healthy.

Turning off email notifications helps you avoid the aforementioned problems. You can eliminate distractions and get rid of the stress that comes with reading every email immediately after it arrives. Instead, you’ll set designated times to check your mailboxes, reply to important emails and discard irrelevant ones. Turning off notifications is part of what some people call “digital detox”.

How Turning Off Email Notifications Reduces Anxiety

Anxiety is a general feeling of worry, fear, and uneasiness. It comes in many forms, including digital anxiety. Constantly checking and responding to emails can induce anxiety and stress. You’ll likely always be worried about when the next email is coming and where it’s coming from. How do I respond? Will my response be okay?

Such anxiety is not good for your well-being and productivity. It’s better to create a designated period to check and respond to your emails. Receiving constant notifications is not good for your mental health, so turning them off can be a good idea.

Other benefits of turning off your email notifications are:

It decreases your overall screen time. Reduced screen time correlates with improved sleep quality and physical health.
It increases your focus on non-digital activities. A notification can easily distract you and make you forget what you’re doing.
It increases your productivity. You can read messages when relaxed and think of the best responses instead of replying under pressure when you’re vulnerable to making more mistakes.

How Can I Turn Off Email Notifications?

If the advantages of switching off your email notifications sound good to you, you’re probably already wondering how you can do that. The good news is that you can easily turn off notifications on different devices and operating systems. The steps differ according to the type of device, which we’ll describe in more detail below.

Switching Off Email Notifications on iPhone

Most iPhone users use Apple Mail to manage their emails. If you fall into this category, you can switch off notifications by following these steps:

Launch your Settings app.
Scroll down and select Mail from the list of apps.
Select Notifications under Allow Mail To Access.
Toggle the button off to mute all notifications from the Apple Mail app.

If you use another email app, you can turn off notifications by taking these steps:

Launch your Settings app.
Tap Notifications.
Look for the email app under Notifications Style.
Turn off the Allow Notifications toggle button; this action disables notifications for the specific app.

Switching Off Email Notifications on Android

Android is an operating system that runs on different kinds of mobile devices. Follow these steps to turn off email notifications on an Android device:

Launch the Settings app.
Tap Notifications & Control Centre.
Tap App Notifications, and you’ll see a list of all your apps with toggle buttons next to them.
Switch off the toggle buttons for your email apps, disabling further notifications from them.

Switching Off Email Alerts on a Mac

If you use Apple Mail or any other email app on your Mac, you can disable notifications by following these steps:

Click on the Apple menu and select System Settings.
Select Notifications from the options on the left-hand side.
Choose the app you use for emails under Application Notifications.
Switch off the toggle button for Allow Notifications at the top of the page. This action disables further notifications from the specific app.

Repeat the above process for all email apps you use.

Switching Off Email Notifications On Windows

Most Windows PC owners use Outlook or Windows Mail as their mailing apps. We’ll examine how to disable notifications for each one.

Follow these steps to turn off notifications for the Outlook desktop app:

Launch the Outlook app.
Navigate to File > Options from the top menu.
Select Mail from the options you see.
Uncheck the Display a Desktop Alert box under Message arrival, disabling notifications from the app.
Press OK to save your settings.

Follow these steps to turn off notifications for the Windows Mail app:

Launch the Mail app.
Head to Settings.
Select Notifications.
Choose your email account from the dropdown menu.
Uncheck the Show a Notification Banner box or switch off the toggle button next to Show notifications in the action center. Either option turns off notifications for the email account. Repeat this process for all your email accounts registered on the Mail app.

Alternatively, you can disable notifications for all emailing apps simultaneously. Do the following:

Launch the Windows Settings app.
Head to the System section.
Tap Notifications & Actions on the left-hand menu.
Scroll down to find the list of all the apps on your PC. Locate all your email apps on this list and switch off the toggle button next to them. This action disables notifications from all the apps whose buttons you switched off.

Conclusion

We have explained how to turn off notifications on the most popular desktop and mobile operating systems. This action brings many benefits, such as reducing anxiety, enhancing productivity, and increasing your focus on non-digital activities. Follow our guide to turn off notifications swiftly and enjoy these benefits.