John Starkweather’s reflection on turning off notifications struck a nerve because it names something many of us quietly negotiate with ourselves every day. We tell ourselves the constant checking is professional vigilance, that being “always on” is part of the job. For marketers especially, it’s easy to justify the noise as research, relevance, or responsiveness. But John’s honesty cuts through that rationale. At some point, it stops being strategy and starts being habit, and more often than not, a dopamine loop disguised as discipline.
What resonated most for me wasn’t just that he turned the notifications off, but what came back once the noise went away… Peace, Control, Focus. Those aren’t productivity hacks… they’re human states. They’re what allow us to think clearly, listen deeply, and engage intentionally rather than reflexively. That shift, from reactive to proactive, is subtle, but it changes everything about how we show up, both professionally and personally.
It also connects deeply to something I’ve written about before when I talked about stepping away from social media and constant digital engagement. What I discovered during those times wasn’t just rest, it was clarity… real clarity. The kind that only shows up when your mind has space to wander a little, to process experiences without interruption, to simply ponder ideas without the pressure to immediately turn them into content, commentary, or conclusions.
When we remove the constant pull of notifications, we gain something incredibly valuable… time to think without an agenda. Some of the most meaningful insights in my life and career have not come from strategic planning sessions or brainstorming meetings. They’ve come from moments when I allowed myself to sit with an idea, take a walk, watch a movie that stirred emotions, or have a conversation with someone that wasn’t tied to a specific business outcome. Conversations that exist simply because connection itself has value.
That’s where the real RETURN ON RELATIONSHIP lives. Not in constant presence, and not in perpetual availability, but in purposeful engagement. Relationships don’t deepen because we respond instantly to every ping, they deepen because when we do show up, we’re fully there… listening, thinking, feeling, and engaging with intention. Attention, not frequency, is the true currency.
What John highlights so well is that you don’t have to completely unplug to experience this shift. You don’t have to delete the apps or disappear from your professional ecosystem… you just have to reclaim agency over when and how you engage. And when you do, something interesting happens. The benefits we usually associate with taking a full break, mental clarity, creative thinking, emotional presence, start to show up in smaller, sustainable ways throughout the year.
Instead of waiting for vacations, holidays, or intentional digital detox weeks (which I fully intend to now start taking quarterly as I mentioned in my post), we can build micro-moments of disconnection into our daily lives. Turning off notifications, setting intentional windows for engagement, allowing ourselves to have uninterrupted conversations, giving ourselves permission to sit with a thought instead of immediately sharing it. These small choices accumulate, creating space for deeper thinking and more meaningful connection without requiring us to step away entirely.
In many ways, this approach strengthens both our professional effectiveness and our personal well-being. As leaders, marketers, and communicators, our value doesn’t come from how quickly we react… it comes from the quality of our thinking, the depth of our relationships, and the authenticity of our engagement. Those things require space to develop, they require quiet, and they require moments where productivity isn’t measured by output, but by reflection.
In a world engineered to fragment our attention, choosing when to engage is a meaningful act of leadership. Sometimes the most meaningful reconnection, with our work, with others, and with ourselves, only happens after we choose to step away from constant engineered distraction. And when we learn to carry pieces of that intentional stepping away into our everyday lives, we don’t just recharge during breaks… we start living and working with greater presence all year long.