In Cal Newport's book Digital Minimalism, he explains the concept of digital minimalism and how to get started. Here is a succinct definition of digital minimalism that I found, "Digital minimalism is a philosophy of technology use based on the understanding that our relationship with our apps, tools, and phones is nuanced and deserves more intention than we give it (Jory MacKay)." I tried out Cal's first step and I'll share what it is and what I learned below.
NOTE: I highly recommend reading the book if you really want this process to work for you. Newport gives a lot more helpful examples, context, definitions, and mindset shifts than my short summary will.
The Digital Declutter
The digital declutter is a 30-day break from all unnecessary use of modern technology (a.k.a. screens). This step is vital because it gives you a clear picture of what it would be like for you to cut every screen use you can out of your life. It also allows you to judge your optional uses of technology without bias. This is vital for the second step of the process (which I will discuss in my next blog post). Here is the process for doing the digital declutter:
Define what technology is necessary for you and what is not. Technology should be counted as necessary if, without it, you would cause major harm to your life, work, or close relationships. Technology may also be counted as necessary if it would make some commonly taken task severely inconvenient. Work email, communicating with your family via video chat, or GPS on your phone, are some good examples of modern technologies that are probably necessary. However, think about it seriously for your situation, maybe one of those isn't really necessary for you. Optional technologies will be everything else. Some common optional modern technologies include video games, casual social media scrolling, checking news websites, tv shows, & YouTube. One or more of these may be necessary for you depending on your work and life. But the idea here is to get really critical and honest with yourself about what you could survive 30 days without. What I decided for me personally, was that digital games, movies and shows, most social media use (except for my work), and YouTube, podcasts, Spotify, and audiobooks were optional technologies for me.
Write out your list of unnecessary technologies (along with a few exceptions and rules) and then put it somewhere you will see it every day. Once you have decided what is necessary and what is optional. You need to commit to what you are going to actually do in the next 30 days. Plus you need to make sure that if you need a technology for something, you don't use it for anything else. (a.k.a. You need to use Facebook video call for talking to your mom, but want to make sure you don't scroll your home feed.) For me, I wrote the following on a post-it note on my desk: "Digital Declutter Rules - Tech only for growth and work. - No games. No movies or shows alone. No Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or Pinterest except for work (aka use a timer). No YouTube except for Yoga or Workouts. No podcasts." As you can see, my list of optional technologies and what I actually committed to quitting for 30 days were not the same. You may find a few technologies are technically optional for you, but not worth cutting out. A few exceptions I made is that I could watch tv shows or movies if I was doing it with someone else (socializing); I could use YouTube if it were fitness-related; and I could listen to Spotify music & Audible books simply because I don't see that they do any harm to my life whatsoever and they give me a ton of value. I also added an additional rule to this list: I could only use social media for work under the condition that I used timers to make sure I didn't get distracted and start scrolling.
Limit access to your unnecessary technologies. I did a couple of things to make keeping to my 30-day commitment easier. Firstly, I deleted my personal Instagram account. I realized it was something I wanted to cut out permanently. But I still have my business one, @elenasdeclutter. Second, I went through my phone and either uninstalled apps that would tempt me, or I removed them from my home page and limited their notifications. (Sidenote: If you want a more in-depth look at decluttering notifications, you can check out my blog post "Declutter Your Notifications.") Another thing I did was add a do-not-disturb schedule to my phone. Now I only get text and call notifications from certain people during certain times of the day. This allows me to get interrupted less often and still allow the most important people in my life to get a hold of me whenever they want to. I also set up timers on my phone to cut me off after using certain apps for certain amounts of time. This has been one of the most helpful things for limiting my use of apps like YouTube and Instagram where you can "get sucked down the rabbit hole."
Do the 30-Day Challenge. Now is the hardest part, actually live for 30 days without using anything on the list that you made in step 2. For me, I discovered I failed after day 9. I kept up with the challenge for the rest of the 30 days, but I was not perfect. And chances are if you try this, neither will you. But it's better to occasionally fall and scroll Instagram for a little while than to throw in the towel and just use whatever technology you want. Do your best.
What I Learned
During the 30-day challenge, I had a total of 6 "fail" days. They were all some form of Instagram or YouTube usage which I was trying to avoid. This is no surprise because they are both apps I kept on my phone and was previously using a ton whenever I was tired or bored. For you, make sure you learn from your tendencies and do your best moving forward. Digital Minimalism is all about reducing your time wasted on screens, not meeting some perfect ideal.
From this 30-day digital declutter, I also learned that I am a lot happier when I spend a lot less time on screens. This was one of my more productive months in a while and I really enjoyed all the extra free time I had because I wasn't throwing it all away on Instagram, Netflix, and YouTube. Now that I am using these three platforms a bit more now, I am not as happy as I was. I'm going to work on getting back to less.
My next blog post is about the 2nd step of the process which is "Reintroducing Optional Technologies Back into Your Life."
My challenge for you right now, is to start the 30-day digital minimalism challenge.
Once you get started, maybe pick up a copy or buy the audiobook "Digital Minimalism" (reading is a great replacement for your optional technologies). While reading the book you can always adjust your "avoid" list during the challenge. But just get started!
I especially recommend digital minimalism for anyone who is feeling overwhelmed, crazy busy, or who is trying to make more time to declutter their physical space. What better way to make more time to declutter than with a digital declutter!?
Comment below if you commit to doing the Digital Declutter for the next 30 days!
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