Automate Your Agency
Are you a founder dreaming of breaking free from the day-to-day grind?
Or perhaps you're looking to scale your company without burning out?
Welcome to Automate Your Agency with Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson, a podcast dedicated to helping you systemize and automate your business for more efficient, scalable operations that can run without you.
Join our hosts as they share battle-tested strategies and cutting-edge tools that take the guesswork out of systemizing your business. Drawing from their experience of growing their agency to 600+ active clients before their exit, Alane and Micah offer actionable insights on:
✅ Implementing effective software solutions
✅ Leveraging automation and AI to do more with less
✅ Creating workflows and systems that allow your business to run without you
✅ Preparing your company for a potential sale or exit
Each week, they take a deep dive into real-world operational challenges and showcase solutions they've implemented. Whether you want to double revenue without doubling headcount or build a business that runs smoothly in your absence, this podcast is your roadmap to success.
Subscribe to Automate Your Agency with Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson now on your favorite podcast platform and join other forward-thinking entrepreneurs as they transform their businesses into well-oiled machines that are primed for growth and ready for whatever the future holds!
For more game-changing strategies and resources, visit us at biggestgoal.ai!
To access exclusive content, training, workshops, and more, join our Your Biggest Goal Community!
Take advantage of our free tools:
Free Asana, ClickUp, or Monday.com Selector Tool
Get 25 Free Custom Automation Ideas for your Business
It's time to work smarter, not harder – let's automate your agency and unlock your business's potential!
Automate Your Agency
How Slack, Teams, Text, and Email notifications actually kill your productivity
Ever feel like you're constantly being pulled in a million directions—Slack, email, texts, pings, dings, and buzzes? Suddenly, you’ve jumped between five things and finished none of them.
Sound familiar?
That's exactly why we recommend turning off all notifications No banners. No buzzes. No red bubbles shouting for attention. Just quiet.
In Episode 46 of Automate Your Agency, Alane and Micah talk about the surprisingly simple mindset shift that allowed us to reclaim focus, how we handle the fear of missing something urgent, and why turning off notifications might be one of the healthiest things you can do.
You'll discover:
- The impact of constant notifications on productivity and focus
- How to distinguish between true urgency and unnecessary interruptions
- What improved when we eliminated all notifications
- Practical systems for staying organized and responsive—without the overwhelm
This episode is for business owners and leaders who are tired of feeling “on” 24/7 and ready to reclaim some calm without sacrificing responsiveness. Trust us: your brain will thank you.
Enjoying the podcast? A 5-star review would mean a lot! It helps other listeners find our show and lets us know we’re hitting the mark. And don’t forget to subscribe—new episodes drop every week!
Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thank you for supporting the podcast!
For more information, visit our website at biggestgoal.ai.
Want more valuable content and helpful tips?
Explore our Courses/Programs:
- Complete our self-paced Process Mapping course
Enjoy our Free Tools:
- Free Asana, ClickUp, or Monday.com Selector Tool
- Get 25 Free Custom Automation Ideas for your Business
Connect with Us:
0:00:00 - (Alane): Welcome to Automate Your Agency. Every week we bring you expert insights, practical tips and success stories that will help you streamline your business operations and boost your growth. Let's get started on your journey to more efficient and scalable operations. So Micah, you and I, I think for two tech business owners are we do something very surprising I think for people.
0:00:29 - (Micah): Is this an intervention?
0:00:32 - (Alane): No, it's the opposite. We both unknowingly of each other at different times, turned off notifications.
0:00:41 - (Micah): Yeah, we didn't tell each other that. So.
0:00:44 - (Alane): No, I just did it because I wouldn't want you to be offended that I was not being constantly notified of things.
0:00:52 - (Micah): So I have to admit, and I didn't pull this off, but when you told me this was your idea for the topic, I was going to have this whole skit ready where I didn't know because I didn't get your slack. But then I thought that might defeat the purpose of this whole episode.
0:01:08 - (Alane): Thank goodness. So we use slack. We have of course email, we use front, we have the apps on our phone, we have ClickUp, text Messages, Signal Signal, WhatsApp. We have all of these things and.
0:01:26 - (Micah): Not we don't use all of those for our business. That's business. That's purse. That's all the. I think the whole idea is there's a lot of things that can bleep and bloop and vibrate right at us.
0:01:41 - (Alane): Yeah. And it's distracting. And we don't realize that our brain is constantly being triggered by these things and pulling us away. Even if our. Our brain starts to mute them for on its own because it's going, hey, this isn't important right now. I'm going to just ignore it. That's your brain working to ignore it because it's either visually you're seeing it or you're hearing it. And I did it as an experiment. And I think you did it as an experiment too.
0:02:08 - (Alane): I think I had just gotten a new phone or something. But we. The whole concept for me and Micah, you can share it from your perspective is I'm already connected all day. I already check my email, I already check my slack, I already check ClickUp notifications. I don't need a notification to do those things. So it was creating a technology loop of insanity to where I could never focus on something because another beep would go off or something like that.
0:02:39 - (Alane): Give it five minutes and I'm probably going to be in slack anyway to check things, maybe send a message. I've always got my ClickUp pulled up and I'm going to be jumping in and out of projects, so I'm going to check my inbox. So it was redundant for me to receive a notification and a huge distraction. Nothing is that urgent that it can't wait those few minutes. And what I realized is no one noticed.
0:03:02 - (Micah): Yeah, I mean, mine was similar. There was this lady named Alane that would not stop, stop messaging me. So I was like, I gotta shut these notifications off.
0:03:13 - (Alane): Yeah, you do have some team members that just won't leave you alone.
0:03:17 - (Micah): Yeah, no, but, but seriously, it was a very, very much the same, you know, I didn't get a new phone. I'm still using a flip phone. But it was essentially the ability that I couldn't concentrate on shit. Nothing. Nothing. I couldn't write an email. And then I noticed this really bad habit that even when I didn't get a notification, I'd have like, OCD tendencies to like, check my email, check my email, check my slack, even.
0:03:51 - (Micah): I'd be writing an email and I'd be like, oh, did I miss something? Let me check my slack. And I. And it was because the notifications just keep coming up and I can't even have it to the point where there's a badge on an icon. I shut all of that off. If there's a little badge that says like 13 text messages or, you know, six slacks, my brain is like, six.
0:04:16 - (Alane): Yeah, I don't have those turned on either anymore. Like on my slack, it's put down. I mean, of course, when I open slack, I can see what channels I need to check by having a notification on there. But I don't have the number notification. I don't have it living when it's docked on my Mac. The other thing is I keep my phone on silent 99% of the time. And so I don't get any type of. And I don't have push notifications on my phone again. I already checked those things.
0:04:44 - (Micah): All of those off.
0:04:46 - (Alane): Turn them all off. Because you don't need double notifications. And Michael, what you were experiencing and saying, like, you get into this habitual loop where it's like your brain. Because we are the type. We're. We're human beings that operate off of protective stress. We're, you know, we're constantly. So our brains get into the super. Oh, I gotta check this, I gotta check this, I gotta check this.
0:05:09 - (Alane): And we're really suffering. Our mental health is really suffering because of it. And I found when I let that go, I can actually do some deep work I'm gonna be online. There is not a fire that can't wait those few minutes I'm going to be in there and it's all going to be okay.
0:05:28 - (Micah): Yeah, I mean, I think that's the key. I remember the day that I shut everything off. I remember thinking, like, this is probably going to fail. This is probably not going to work. I have no notifications for Slack. Like, when you message me Alane, I don't get notified. When our team messages me, I don't get notified. I have no notifications for ClickUp. I have no notifications for text messages. None of that.
0:05:58 - (Micah): Yeah, lovely. It didn't fail. It's gone on years where I have no notifications because it is a finite number. Yes. I still have the habit of checking email, but I'm not being interrupted in it. So I don't feel the need to go stop what I'm doing just to, like, see what the last ding was or what it meant. And it's a fricking cat gif or something stupid. Right. Like, so all of that just breaks down your. Your mental ability to focus and create clarity.
0:06:37 - (Micah): And, you know, I. I think it was in a previous episode or we were just talking recently even about kind of leveraging this as, like, a muscle. And even this is like a muscle. Like, I had huge FOMO fear of missing out every time a notification goes off. Oh, what was that? What was that? What if that's super important.
0:07:00 - (Alane): Yeah, I gotta jump over there right now.
0:07:02 - (Micah): Yep. It wasn't plot. You know, spoiler alert. It wasn't important at all.
0:07:07 - (Alane): Most of the stuff isn't.
0:07:09 - (Micah): No.
0:07:10 - (Alane): And people do have that fear. Like, I don't. I think I felt the same way, too. And when I. I don't even have my phone on vibrate anymore because that's still a notification. That is still. It's not a sound, it's a feel. And I turned that off. And so my phone's on silent. I don't get notifications, and it doesn't vibrate. And my life has been great. I think I've been doing it for four years now.
0:07:34 - (Micah): Yeah, I know you're a little different than me on this one, but that is why I have zero interest in an Apple watch. It makes me feel too connected.
0:07:44 - (Alane): You can turn the.
0:07:46 - (Micah): What? Yeah, I know. But then it's like, I've got. It feels like I got multiple screens. I don't know. It's too much.
0:07:54 - (Alane): Yeah, I don't differ from you on that. I don't like the notifications. On my watch. So I turn those off. I love it for tracking my steps, for when I played tennis. How. How is my heart rate? Like, nerdy things like, that would be my favorite. So, Micah, like, even hearing other people's notifications is a toxic.
0:08:17 - (Micah): Yes.
0:08:18 - (Alane): Experience for me. When I.
0:08:19 - (Micah): It's like, not. Not to throw this out loosely, but a bit PTSD of like. Like, you know, if you hear somebody behind you at a restaurant and their phone is constantly dinging, I'll. I'll get that pit in my stomach, like, oh, is that. Is that mine? Where is that? What do we. Like, why won't they answer it? Why won't they look like, stop.
0:08:41 - (Alane): I don't think they're on silent.
0:08:42 - (Micah): Yes. Yes.
0:08:44 - (Alane): So I was. I remember this so vivid, vividly a couple years ago when I did that AI boot camp or something. I can't remember what it was called exactly, but in Chicago, and they had us all there for a week, and we are in these, like, intense AI workshops, and one person in there constantly had his laptop open with the notification on full blast. Sometimes it was going off every 30 seconds, and I. I couldn't take it. I'm like, how is anybody else not going insane?
0:09:19 - (Alane): I was literally. It was like nails on a chalkboard repeatedly for four hours.
0:09:23 - (Micah): Was that the one you got kicked out of? Because.
0:09:26 - (Alane): No, I did not. But I got him kicked out of. No, no. But I did go ask him to please put his phone or his computer on silent. If you want to be distracted all day, fine, but don't impede on my day. But. But what I really was thinking, too, during that is that person doesn't realize the suffering that their brain is going through. Listening to that constantly.
0:09:53 - (Micah): Yeah.
0:09:54 - (Alane): And they had their laptop open the whole time, which meant they couldn't disconnect and they needed a notification constantly making sure that they stayed connected. That is not a good place for us to be on. And we've had episodes about mental health, and this is one of the small ways that we can really make an impact on our day where we don't feel so exhausted at the end of the day, because that's the feeling that you get from something like this.
0:10:17 - (Micah): Yeah. You know what I just realized as you were saying that, Alane, is this brings back to a bigger picture. This is almost, I would say, an indicator of when you need to systemize your business. If. If you're to the point where you can't close your laptop for an hour or you're going through your. You know, you're getting notifications over lunch. And you just can't stop, especially as a business owner or a founder where you already can't stop thinking about your business, that that's a clear indicator that something is wrong. That's a red flag.
0:10:52 - (Micah): There's better ways to run a business than just being completely, 100% of the time connected and pulled into it 100% of your day.
0:11:02 - (Alane): Yeah. I'm so glad that we independently made those changes. And it wasn't even until you did a LinkedIn post several months ago now about it that I even knew that you had done that. So that is like, I think so telling in that we can still survive as business owners without those notifications on. But certainly if you have a hard time doing this is putting those systems in place. We do have systems that our team and if our team needs something, we're going to see it and we're going to be able to go and help them.
0:11:36 - (Alane): Is it going to be right that second? No. But very few things in business, I don't even know if I could think of one that needed immediate attention right that second.
0:11:47 - (Micah): Not in the sense where you're already probably in the mix and aware of what the heck is going on.
0:11:54 - (Alane): Yeah, sometimes like on sales calls, it's nice, like, hey, can somebody grab this case study for me? You know, and having somebody available that got the message and could do that, Like, I could see like little things, but that still isn't like make or break. Like.
0:12:08 - (Micah): Yeah. And you know what? Honestly, one of my hacks for this is I have multiple screens, but I usually have one screen that just has like my Windows arranged that. I can just see like my inbox, just see like my Slack unread thing. And it's not an alert, but if I happen to be glancing over there, I can just quickly glance and see if there's anything and peek at it, which is very different than being focused and then go ding, ding, ding.
0:12:40 - (Micah): That's my slack impression. Just in case you're wondering. I've been practicing it. One thing that I would say with this too is you don't have to go all or nothing. Just start with shutting off a couple things, see how it feels.
0:12:54 - (Alane): Yeah, it might feel really good. Might want to do some more. Might want to go cold turkey and just rip off all notifications. Who knows? But try something and let us know if you do try it. Let us know what you think. Micah and I both have seen great positive results, so I'd love to hear other business owners or managers that do the same thing and see how you do with it. Thanks for listening to this episode of Automate Your Agency. We hope you're inspired to take your business to the next level. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review.
0:13:28 - (Alane): Your feedback helps us improve and reach more listeners. If you're looking for more resources, visit our website at biggestgoal.ai for free content and tools for automating your business. Join us next week as we dive into more ways to automate and scale your business. Bye for now.
