Distracting Notifications - Tips

Who would welcome less distractions, ever been in a situation in a meeting presenting and you get a new message pop-up bubble that you did not intend to share with your audience? 

There are two great solutions that can save you from distractions, embarrassing moments, or showing confidential conversations by accident, see below:

Outlook – Turn Off Notification Sound and Pop-Up Message Window

• Go to ‘File’ (upper left hand in Outlook) then to ‘Options’ (left hand side lower section).

• In the Options window go to ‘Mail’ – second choice on the left.

• Go to the ‘Message Arrival’ section in the right-hand side pane.

• Review your choices for how Outlook notifies you when a new message arrives.

o Turn off ‘Play a Sound’ by unchecking this option.

o Turn off ‘Display a Desktop Alert’ by unchecking ‘Display a Desktop Alert’ option.

Windows Notifications

• Left click on the ‘Notifications’ window in the lower right corner of the Windows toolbar.

• In the notifications window that expands go to the upper right corner of that windowpane and click ‘Manage Notifications’

o The following settings window will open.

• From this window you can turn off all notifications if you wish, but I would recommend not doing this since windows updates, password change alerts, and system messages go through this system. But I do recommend the following changes.

o Scroll down and choose to (uncheck) ‘Allow notifications to play sounds’.

o Keep scrolling down to where you see the list of applications to select ‘Off’ by clicking the radio button next to:

 Outlook

 Mail

 Calendar

 Teams