If you’ve spent any time consuming productivity content in the last few years, you’ve likely been exposed to “digital minimalism” rhetoric.
It’s all these proclamations that claim to be the be-all-and-end-all of healthy ways to navigate a world increasingly uncomfortably surrounded by screens.
Monitoring screen time like a hawk. Keeping your phone in your pocket at dinner. (Because even having it face down on a table has a scientifically-verifiable effect on the vibe). Leaving your phone at home while going on a ten-mile hike—your small children at home be damned.
Then there was all the stuff to worry about while you were using the tech and the gadgets.
Keeping your digital desktop clear. Putting your Apple Notes in coded little subfolders. Deleting all those duplicate photos we always take.
It seems it was especially all the rage in that 2019 to 2021 window, as we were stuck staring at our devices even more often than usual and seeing plainer than ever how much it was draining our life force.
You may have been shamed for having too many apps on your phone, or too high a number on your screen time log. Or, in some cases, even having a phone—or at least one that was more capable than a pager.
But we all knew, on some level, that it was necessary. And on another level, we knew how badly we wanted freedom from it.
How badly we wanted to return to a time when this wasn’t a problem—when we didn’t have to actively think about being digitally minimal.
But if nothing else has become clear over the last five or ten years, it’s that whatever world we lived in before our lives were consumed by pixels is not coming back. Digital is no longer just “the future.” It’s also the now.
This is the way it’s going to be moving forward. There’s nothing new that’s going to come in and change the game (until Mark Zuckerberg maybe nails it with those new Rayban sunglasses with computers in them). There’s only going to be variations and developments on these ideas.
You’re going to have a computer and a phone and an email address for a very long time. So best—nay, nearly mandatory—to get it all figured out. To set up your system, to clear out all the garbage, and then to work continually to improve it.
And that process starts by clearing out all the gunk—from your brain, yes, but also your hard drive.
And so: digital minimalism, however buzzy or fashionable a term it once was or still is, denotes a real and productive process that you can use to simplify your life. And we love simplifying our lives around here.
So let’s review the basics one more time.
Contradictions are always at play
What if you could harness the power of technology without feeling overwhelmed by it? Enter digital minimalism, a philosophy created by a man named Cal Newport in his book, entitled, you guessed it, Digital Minimalism.
Digital minimalism is all about being intentional with how you use technology, and recognizing that your relationship with apps, tools, and devices is as complex and multifaceted as it is addictive and, ultimately, dangerous. As Cal Newport points out early in his book, email and chat can be both productive and stressful, while Facebook can be both empowering and distracting. Your phone can be both a powerful tool and a frustrating interruption. It’s a mess of contradictions.
That’s been a not-insignificant source of frustration for many over the years since technology has established and held its grip on our minds and culture: you can’t simply “unplug.” You can’t not participate. Sure, you can (and should) delete Instagram from your phone. But you will invariably miss a legitimately life-enriching picture of your friend’s new baby, or a direct message that affects your career. (Wild that this is the point we’ve gotten to, but the genie’s out of the bottle.)
Entertainers have to maintain accounts for promotional and other considerations, even if they don’t use or value it in their personal lives. Many have espoused the “post and ghost” philosophy, where they will add to the conversation with a piece of content but then fully turn their back on it before the comments even start rolling in.
So we, as mere mortals, have to find our own ways to cut through the fog and find a path down the middle. The key is finding a balance between the benefits and drawbacks of technology. Digital minimalism offers a solution to this delicate balancing act, helping you maximize the value you get from your digital tools while minimizing the distractions and stress they can bring.
The digital world doesn’t want you to go minimal
Minimalism is not just about reducing possessions, but also about being mindful of why we have what we have and how we use it.
Digital minimalism is the next step—and it’s not simply putting everything inside silly little boxes. It’s not just about deleting social media accounts or managing your inbox; it’s about intentionally shaping your digital habits to align with your values.
However, this is easier said than done. As we just established, technology can be both beneficial and harmful. We’re reluctant to give up the conveniences of technology, yet constantly policing our app usage and behavior can lead to a tough kind of emotional exhaustion and a feeling like we’re digging and grinding at ourselves constantly with new hopes of progress.
Research shows that we:
- Check email and chat every 6 minutes or less
- Use 56+ apps and tools daily, switching between them over 300 times
- Spend up to 4.5 hours on our phones
- Multitask for at least 40% of our day
This constant distraction and multitasking can harm our mental health, creativity, and productivity. Digital minimalism offers an alternative approach, focusing on a few carefully selected activities that align with our values and happily missing out on the rest.
The core elements of digital minimalism are:
- Choice and intention: Using technology intentionally and only what aligns with our values.
- Optimizing tools: Ensuring the tools we use work for us and separating the beneficial apps from the time-wasters.
- Accepting limitations: Embracing that we can’t be everywhere all the time and letting go of FOMO (fear of missing out).
By embracing digital minimalism, we can reduce stress, increase focus, and lead a more fulfilling life. We just have to figure out exactly how to do it first.
A 30-day starter plan
Developing a digital minimalist mindset can be challenging (and many wouldn’t even know where to start), but our minimalism daddy Cal Newport’s 30-day plan provides a powerful tool to help you get started.
Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Define Your Core Values
Digital minimalism begins with understanding your core values and how technology affects them. Take time to reflect on what’s important to you, what you want to achieve, and how technology helps or hinders those goals. Your values might include authenticity, creativity, compassion, or friendship.
These are things that truly matter in your real life, not just your digital one. And these are the things that, in an ideal world, would make keeping technology around worth it. The things that technology could actively enhance in your life, rather than keep you from.
Step 2: Take a 30-Day Break from Optional Technologies
For 30 days, set aside all optional technologies that aren’t essential to your daily life. This includes social media, streaming services, and other apps that can be distracting. Use this time to explore other activities that bring you joy and fulfillment.
Step 3: Track Your Technology Triggers and Explore New Activities
During the 30-day break, pay attention to when you feel the urge to use technology. Identify the underlying issues driving your behavior and explore higher-quality activities to fill the void. This might include reading, taking walks, or pursuing hobbies. Triggers can come in all shapes and sizes. It’s important not to feel embarrassed or judge yourself for them.
Step 4: Create Operating Procedures for Allowed Technologies
When reintroducing optional technologies, ask two questions:
- Does this technology directly support something I deeply value?
- Is this technology set up to support this value in the best way possible?
Create clear operating procedures for each allowed technology, outlining when and how you’ll use it.
Step 5: Actively Ignore the Rest
With your allowed tools, operating procedures, and new activities all in place, you’ll hopefully be less stressed about keeping up with everything. Remember, digital minimalism is an ongoing process. Focus on deploying technology that serves your values and happily miss out on the rest.
By following these steps, you’ll develop a digital minimalist mindset, simplifying your digital life and prioritizing what truly matters. And then, maybe, you can start to breathe again—and adjust your posture.
Best practices for the long-term (and forever)
Sticking to a digital minimalist lifestyle can be challenging, but with the right strategies, you can maintain your newfound freedom and keep things at bay from all these gross, draining, attention-sucking technologies. To help you stay on track, we’ll steal one more batch of ideas from Cal Newport: He outlines these five essential practices:
- Embrace Solitude: Spend time alone, away from digital distractions, to cultivate mental clarity. Leave your phone behind on walks or engage in solo activities that promote introspection.
- Rethink Social Media: Limit your use of social media and digital communication tools to avoid mindless scrolling. Connect with loved ones intentionally, without the need for constant validation.
- Reclaim Leisure Time: Rediscover analog hobbies and activities that bring you joy, replacing digital habits with more fulfilling pursuits.
- Join the Attention Resistance: Minimize digital distractions by deleting unnecessary apps, treating social media as a professional tool, and limiting your online presence.
- Value Your Time: Imagine paying a monetary price for every digital interaction. This mindset shift can help you prioritize intentional technology use and protect your time and attention.
By adopting these practices, you’ll become more intentional and empowered in your technology use, aligning your digital habits with your true values and promoting a more productive, minimalist lifestyle.
Our phones are addictive. For some of us, computers and iPads are even worse. Every day we feel this sick push and pull—the desire to be glued to it all day long like junkies while knowing deep down it doesn’t fulfill us.
This is no way to live. But a well-intentioned, balanced, focused life, where you happen to be able to have a state-of-the-art GPS and an internet communicator with a direct line to all your best friends in your pocket? That’d be pretty cool.
Let’s work toward that balance. It doesn’t seem we have a choice in the matter anymore.
