We Don't Need More Notifications. We Need Better Timing.

It's Wednesday lunchtime and I'm writing this when I should probably have written it yesterday.

But it's the middle of the summer holidays, we're on our 576th heatwave, and August seems to come with its own particular brand of chaos, so I'm trying not to be too hard on myself.

But oddly, I've been thinking about notifications.

We get absolutely loads of them.

My phone is constantly pinging me about something. A news alert, a calendar reminder, a message from Slack, a Waitrose offer, an American Express notification, something from NatWest, a Trainline update. Even Apple TV has decided to let me know that Ted Lasso is back. I appreciated that one.

This is what my notification centre looks like as I'm writing this.

The strange thing is, I don't actually have a problem with being reminded.

The problem is that most reminders arrive when I'm not in a position to do anything about them.

I'm driving, so I dismiss it. I'm in the middle of something, so I swipe it away. I'm cooking dinner, dealing with something else, or trying to get Chloe out of the door, and I tell myself I'll come back to it later.

Sometimes I do. Often I don't.

And I think that's one of the things we've got wrong about reminders. We've assumed that if something is important enough to remember, the answer is to remind us more often.

I'm not convinced it is.

Sometimes we don't need another notification.

We just need a better time to deal with the things we've been reminded about.

That thought has been behind something we've been working on at Doqit, and from this week, Doqit users will start receiving a Sunday Digest.

Every Sunday morning, the Digest brings together the things you've missed during the week and what's coming up, giving you a chance to stop for a minute and see what's on the horizon before the new week gets going.

Because Sunday is different.

For most of us, there is a little more space. You're not necessarily rushing between meetings or trying to remember whether you've replied to the email you opened while standing in the supermarket queue.

You can actually look at what's coming up.

Maybe there's an insurance renewal that needs dealing with. A document you've been meaning to look at. Something you were reminded about during the week but didn't have time to act on.

None of those things disappeared just because you swiped the notification away.

They were still waiting for you.

And that's the bit I like about the Digest.

It isn't another attempt to grab your attention in the middle of everything else that's going on.

It's giving you a moment when you can actually do something with the information.

We're surrounded by technology that is very good at getting our attention. We have alerts for almost everything now, and most of us have become remarkably good at dismissing them.

Perhaps the answer isn't more noise.

Maybe it's giving important information a better place in the week.

That's what we're trying with the Sunday Digest.

It's a small change, but I think it could make a big difference.

And as someone who is currently trying to work around summer holidays, mad heat and the general chaos of August - I'm quite looking forward to getting my own.

If you're a Doqit user, keep an eye out for your first Sunday Digest this weekend.

And if you're not, well, perhaps it's worth asking yourself how many notifications you dismissed this week with the intention of coming back to them later.

I suspect the answer might be quite a few.

About Doqit

Doqit is the system households rely on to make sure nothing gets missed.

Founded by Catherine Ann Reid and built from lived experience, Doqit was created to take the weight of life admin off people's shoulders; not by helping them "get organised", but by giving them a system that works with the reality of modern life.

It connects documents, information and deadlines in one place, so everything is easy to find, simple to manage, and there when it's needed most.

From insurance policies and passports to school records and medical information, Doqit keeps track of the details that matter, helping people stay on top of the things that are easy to forget but difficult to live without.

Doqit. Nothing missed. Nothing lost.

Published: 12th August 2026