Digital minimalism is a philosophy for technology use rooted in your deepest values. (An article by Cal Newport)
If you use food as an analogy, using only technology that enhances values is like only eating whole foods, rich in nutrients, and avoiding junk food. Digital minimalists make a concerted effort to ensure they are not consuming junk in their digital diet (i.e., mindless games and apps primarily used to alleviate boredom).
Does every app on your phone and every website shortcut in your browser enhance your values? Or does your digital diet contain too much junk food?
Protect Your Ability to Concentrate
No matter what field you work in, your ability to concentrate is a superpower. Losing your ability to concentrate is like Stephen Curry losing his ability to shoot a three‐point shot or a Major League pitcher in baseball losing his ability to throw a fastball. Without concentration, you can’t perform your best and produce work that changes your career trajectory.
If you do not filter your technology use through your values, you will clutter your life with distracting technology and destroy your ability to concentrate (part of your mind constantly wonders what is happening on your devices and frequent notifications make it harder to focus). Therefore, you must declutter your digital life so that you can sustain your ability to concentrate. Start the process of decluttering your digital life by taking on a three‐week device detachment challenge. Changing how you respond to interruptions is not rude, it is setting expectations for those with whom we interact.
Week One: Spend one hour a day alone without your devices.
Your challenge for week one is to be away from your phone and other media devices for an hour a day. No texts, no phone calls, no news, and no podcasts. Either go for a long walk or a bike ride alone, or practice a hobby without a phone, computer, or TV near you. Think of your hour of solitude as time in which you store up your productive power. Like how a dam can generate hydropower by interrupting the flow of water in a river, you can produce productive power and strengthen your ability to concentrate by interrupting social input and being alone with your thoughts.
To get started with your week one challenge, create a solitude plan: Where will you go for an hour to find solitude? What time of day will you go there?
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” ‐ Blaise Pascal
Week Two: Stop using devices during downtime.
Decluttering your digital life might be challenging because you use your devices during downtime to de‐stress. But ask yourself: “Is spending time on my devices the best way to enjoy my downtime?” Author Cal Newport has studied the best way to use downtime (or what he refers to as “leisure time”). After extensive research, Newport discovered three “leisure lessons.”
LeisureLesson#1: A Demanding Activity Is more restorative than passive consumption. By expending energy, you gain energy. It’s like the old entrepreneurial adage, “You have to spend money to make money.”
LeisureLesson#2: Using skills to produce valuable things in the physical world is more stimulating and rejuvenating than spending time in the digital world.
LeisureLesson#3: Real‐world, structured social interactions are more enjoyable and rewarding than social interactions on devices.
Use these three lessons to craft your week two device detachment plan. Write down at least two demanding activities (ex: exercising and learning a new hobby), two skill‐based activities that produce things in the physical world (ex: cooking and drawing), and two structured social activities (ex: playing board games with family and having coffee with a friend) you can do instead of consuming content or playing games on your devices.
Week Three: Be an anti‐texter.
If you’re like most people, your friends and family have trained you to stop what you’re doing and respond to their texts immediately. It’s as if you have an obligation to be “on‐call” when their next text arrives. Stop being “on‐call” and strengthen your relationships by taking on the following anti‐texting challenge:
Turn off all text notifications so that texts are silent and do not appear on your home screen.
Select the three times you will respond to texts during the day. If someone gets mad that you did not get back to them quicker, say, “I only check my texts a few times a day. If something urgent comes up, call me.”
When someone texts you a question that could lead to a text chain, call them. If you have a long commute, use your drive time to call someone who has recently texted you.
Newport says, “You can be the one person in their life who actually talks to them on a regular basis, forming a deeper, more nuanced relationship than any number of exclamation points and bitmapped emojis can provide.”