Productivity Hack: What Is the “Do Not Disturb” Feature on Your Phone?
The pandemic impacted everyone’s productivity, but a significant number of people relied on technology to keep their key performance indicators high. As an example, special features to disable mobile and office phones’ distracting rings and notifications became useful. You’re in the right place if you’re asking the question, “What is the ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature on my phone?”
In a nutshell, the “Do Not Disturb” mode sends business calls directly to voicemail. Top providers can set up sophisticated virtual IP phone systems that forward the calls to other specified destinations according to a set of rules.
Whether you use this feature on your mobile device or your office’s physical phone, you can activate and deactivate “Do Not Disturb” with the click of a button and start realizing productivity benefits almost immediately.
A similar mode, specific for mobile phones, is “Airplane Mode,” which, besides deactivating incoming calls, turns off all other notifications. Here’s what Business Insider reported, based on renowned author Tim Ferriss’ experience on increased productivity:
- The author of The 4-hour workweek claims turning off all mobile notifications helps him “keep his sanity.”
- The following idea might be a bit ambitious for some people (especially those who don’t have an assistant, as Ferriss does), but he keeps his smartphone on airplane mode “about 80% of each day.” He mainly avoids distractions right before going to bed and during his morning routine.
- Ferriss’s practice includes blocking off parts of the day to catch up on emails, calls, social media, and other notifications instead of interrupting his schedule with frequent phone checks.
Noah Kagan, another author referenced in Inc. Magazine, says he can get the most done in the least amount of time by replicating the conditions he knows make him more productive. “When he flies, Noah does not order wifi. He uses that time of disconnected isolation to get a lot of work done. He recognized that the conditions of airplane mode were replicable when he was back on the ground, namely: People were isolated from him, there were no distractions (apart from an occasional crying child, but hey, that’s life), and he had a block of work to do.”
The trick is to closely study your schedule to find out specific moments throughout the day when fewer interruptions could help get your projects done faster. No distractions could result in better use of your focus and energy. Wondering what “Do Not Disturb” is on your phone? It’s a productivity tool that has the potential to change how you work.
Related: VoIP-based Office Telephone Systems: Pros And Cons
Leveraging the “Do Not Disturb” Business Phone Feature
Maybe you are in a meeting or completing tasks related to a sensitive project. There are times when you just can’t be disturbed at work.
If you returned to work at the office and have an assistant, you can ask them not to let anyone interrupt you for a determined time, or you can post a notice on your door. But what can you do to stop people from calling your direct line without missing messages that might be important to follow up on later?
This is just one scenario where the “Do Not Disturb” feature could help. As mentioned above, once activated, any calls that come into your number will be routed directly to your voicemail without causing your phone to ring. This capability ensures that you have control over when you are interrupted by calls.
Here are just a few other ways to leverage the “Do Not Disturb” feature on your phone.
Meeting Privacy
If you are attending an important meeting, whether face-to-face or online, you don’t want your phone to ring in the middle of it and cause everyone to lose their focus.
This is also essential if you forward business calls to your mobile phone when you’re away from the office. Having your personal device go off in your pocket or around your desk during a meeting can be embarrassing.
Activating “Do Not Disturb” prevents this work faux pas by automatically shifting incoming calls to your voicemail, where you can check them later.
Enforcing Quiet Hours
Similar to what Tim Ferriss does with his smartphone, you shouldn’t receive any calls during your designated quiet hours. However, sometimes you can’t avoid a call from getting through anyway. There are days when your assistant might be off work or when your colleagues or clients don’t know you are taking time off business-related issues.
If you turn on the “Do Not Disturb” feature, it doesn’t matter who makes a call to your business number; they will all go to voicemail. However, you may be wondering what happens in the case of an emergency.
Leading virtual phone systems will let you designate specific numbers to they bypass the Do Not Disturb feature. You can pick up the call or set them up to forward to somebody else on your team while automatically sending the other calls over to your voicemail.
Integration with Call Handling Rules
Related to the scenario described above, the best business communication providers offer several call handling options with their VoIP business services, and “Do Not Disturb” can integrate well with all of them.
By partnering with one of these companies, you will be able to set up features like “Do Not Disturb” and other call handling rules in your online account by specifying different actions for the “Do Not Disturb” feature.
If you have other call handling rules already set up, you could opt to skip the voicemail and simply let the rule take over. This can be useful if you have set up a rule that will direct the call to someone else that can handle it for you.
Related: How to Set up a Virtual Phone System for Your Small Business
Call Center Efficiency
If your company has a call center or phone customer service department, setting up “Do Not Disturb” on your phone makes it easy to keep calls coming through even when some of your agents are away from their desks.
By activating the “Do Not Disturb” feature in conjunction with preset rules, additional calls that come in will go to other call center numbers. Once your employee returns to their desk, they can deactivate “Do Not Disturb,” and the line becomes operational once again.
One-Touch Activation
State-of-the-art VoIP phones’ designs have the “Do Not Disturb” feature in mind.
If you choose a top-tier provider, there will be no need to log in to your account to turn the feature on since the phone itself features a button where you can toggle “Do Not Disturb” on and off with a single touch. Even if you have to go into your online account, the feature activates with just one click.
Partner Up With The Right Provider
Phone.com offers fully configurable “Do Not Disturb” and other 50+ features. You can easily access your account settings from your computer, smartphone, or any other device to instantly activate “Do Not Disturb” and all other business communications add-ons that you can use regularly. You can also set, remove or edit any call handling rules with ease and make other changes to your phone function without having to contact anyone or wait for changes to take effect. Get a plan now.