Notifications - how to get less of them?

Why not change the workflow that updates the item to be called from within the notification workflow, rather than starting on it's own.  So notification workflow starts, calls the update workflow, then after the update is complete, it sends the notification.   

Hi ‌,

Remove both small workflows. Add a hidden column to the list. Add some extra logic to your main workflow to:

1. Send a 'Item added' notification when the hidden column is empty. Then add a value to the hidden column.
2. Send a 'item updated' notification when the hidden column does have a value.

Based on the info you provided, the main workflow starts 'on item added' and 'on item changed'.

Cheers,

Rick

‌

converted discussion to question.

I'm not certain he meant this to be a question.  Sounds like he wanted to discuss how other people approach it. 

hm, there is a problem depicted and question how to resolve it already in header.

further questions at the end.

and as Rick points out there is a design problem.

so, that sounds to me to be a problem/question to be resolved.

but let see how it evolves, we still can turn it back to discussion.

This seems like it will be a good solution.  Is there a way to make it not trigger twice within X minutes?  For instance, I often have users editing an item twice or three times within the space of the same 5 minutes.  I only want to get one notification when this happens.

I'm not sure.  You could try adding a pause of 5 minutes when the workflow starts see what that does.