How do I cut down on notifications without missing anything important?

The easiest way to cut down on notifications is to sort them by purpose. Keep the ones that affect people, money, calendar events, or urgent work, and silence the ones that only exist to grab attention.

That means most apps should not be allowed to interrupt you by default. If a notification does not require action, it can usually wait until you open the app on your own time.

It also helps to batch checks into a few windows during the day. That way you are still informed, but you are not letting every alert decide what you think about next.

If you want a simple rule, ask whether the notification would matter if you saw it thirty minutes later. If the answer is no, it probably does not deserve an interruption.

So the goal is not to miss important things. It is to keep important things visible while clearing out the constant noise that makes everything feel urgent.