HOW TO: Turn Off Your Phone (and Web) For The Holidays

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It's so easy to let work suck you back in with a ping here, a notification there - my advice is to TURN IT ALL OFF! But before we get into steps and how to's - HAVE AN AMAZING HOLIDAY, I hope it's full of love, laughter, and friends!

Contents and HOW TO TURN IT ALL OFF:
  1. Phones
    1. Work Profiles
    2. Syncing
    3. Notifications
  2. Laptops and the like
    1. Web notifications
    2. ChromeOS
  3. Out of Office

Phones

For either Android (Samsung, Pixel etc etc) or iOS, if you have a separate work phone - TURN IT OFF and PUT IT INTO A DRAWER.

Work Profiles

If you have an Android phone with a Work Profile - TURN IT OFF. If work profiles is news to you check out my post Using Your Phone for Work AND Personal.

Note: some of the following steps might not be the same on every device - it's about choice!

To pause or turn on your work profile from the Work profile tab:
  1. Swipe up from the bottom of your screen to the top.
  2. Tap the "Work" tab.
  3. At the bottom of your screen, toggle the Work apps switch.
    When the switch is off, your work profile is paused. When the switch is on, your work profile is running.
To pause your work profile from Quick Settings:
  1. Swipe down from the top of any screen and locate the work tile (briefcase icon).
    You may need to swipe down again to see all your quick settings. If you don't see the work tile, you can add it if your device supports it by tapping the edit icon at the bottom of the panel.
  2. Tap the work tile.
    When the tile is dimmed, your work profile is paused. When the tile is illuminated, your work profile is running.

If you have an iOS phone with a ... um, profile, managed apps (?) - TURN IT OFF

I've tried looking this up but I don't actually see how it all works so you'll have to work out how to do that yourselves - maybe someone can leave instructions and/or links as a comment below.

Syncing

If, for some bizarre reason, you still need (not "want", need) to open your work apps now and again during your holiday break (!) then I suggest you turn off background syncing and then just get the data as and when you "need" it.

  1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
  2. Tap Accounts. 
  3. If you have more than one account on your phone, tap the one you want to sync.
  4. Tap Account sync.
  5. Turn off the apps you don't want to auto-sync.
Tip: Turning off auto-sync for an app doesn't remove the app. It only stops the app from automatically refreshing your data.

You iOS folks I think the instructions in Have A Rest, Turn Off Your Mobile Phone Syncing are still valid.
 

Notifications

OK, you're addicted and truly believe you have to have the work stuff coming at you 24/7 despite the fact that you are on holiday! (do you though, do you really?)

At the very least turn off all the notifications for your work apps/profiles.
Stop the ping noises, get rid of the pop-ups and notifications, and remove the "unread" red labels on the apps. Make it seem like they are on holiday as well but safe in the knowledge that they are truly working in the background when you shouldn't be.

If you have your personal and work Android apps all munched up under one profile then you're gonna have to go through each app separately - seriously, use a Work Profile it's soooo much easier.

Option 1: In your Settings app
  1. Open your phone's Settings app.
  2. Tap Notifications >  App settings.
  3. Under "Most recent," find apps that recently sent you notifications.
    To find more apps, in the dropdown menu, tap All apps.
  4. Tap the app.
  5. Turn the app's notifications on or off.
    • You can turn off all notifications for a listed app.
    • To pick specific categories of notifications, tap the app's name.
Option 2: On a notification
  1. To find your notifications, from the top of your phone screen, swipe down.
  2. Touch and hold the notification, and then tap Settings .
  3. Choose your settings:
    • To turn off all notifications, turn off All notifications. 
    • Turn on or off notifications you want to receive.
    • To allow notification dots, turn on Allow notification dot.
Option 3: In the certain app
You can control many app notifications from a settings menu in the app. For example, an app could have a setting to choose the sound that app's notifications make. To make these changes, open the app and search for the settings menu. 

Right, for you iOS users out there Apple have glorious instructions for ya: Change notification settings


Laptops and the like

Look, it's a bit like the phones thing above, just TURN IT OFF and PUT IT IN A DRAWER.

If you use your laptop for personal things as well then just DON'T LOG IN to the work profiles!

Web notifications

Here I am talking about Chrome (and Chromium based browsers), but you Safari and Firefox people can get amongst it and turn off  notifications as well.
  1. On your computer, open Chrome.
  2. At the top right, click More > Settings.
  3. Click Privacy and security > Site Settings > Notifications.
  4. Select the option you want as your default setting.
    • Block a site: 
      1. Next to "Not allowed to send notifications," click Add. 
      2. Enter the site's web address. 
      3. Click Add.
    • Allow a site: 
      1. Next to "Allowed to send notifications," click Add. 
      2. Enter the site's web address. 
      3. Click Add.
    • Allow quieter notification prompts (blocks notification prompts from interrupting you): 
      1. Allow sites to ask to send notifications.
      2. Click Use quieter messaging (blocks notification prompts from interrupting you). You won't get notifications after you ignore multiple notifications from a site, or if other users typically don't allow notifications from a site.

ChromeOS

If you have a Chromebook with just one profile (!!!??!?) then next to the clock, click the Notifications setting to turn off / on.


Email - add an out of office!

Here's how using Gmail on the web
  1. On your computer, open Gmail.
  2. In the top right, click Settings and then See all settings.
  3. Scroll down to the "Vacation responder" section.
  4. Select Vacation responder on.
  5. Fill in the date range, subject, and message.
  6. Under your message, check the box if you only want your contacts to see your vacation reply.
  7. At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes.
And via the Gmail Android app:
  1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Gmail app .
  2. In the top left, tap Menu.
  3. Scroll to the bottom, then tap Settings.
  4. Choose your account.
  5. Tap Vacation responder.
  6. At the top, turn the "Vacation responder" switch On.
  7. Fill in the date range, subject, and message.
  8. Tap Done.
The iOS Gmail app instructions are very similar.

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