Digital Minimalism

Vuokko Vuorinnen

• 2 min read
Digital Minimalism
Photo by Andrew Neel / Unsplash

I'm too distracted, I can't concentrate, I want to become more present. Exit phone, enter 'Digital Minimalism'.

A first step I took into ditching my phone addiction was some quick hacks:

  • Inbox Zero
  • Remove all bookmarks except a select few from my browser
  • Remove all app shortcuts from my phone, except for a few (Clock, Calendar, Spotify, WhatsApp, Mail)
  • Remove social media apps from my phone altogether

This brought down my phone usage quite a bit, but I noticed that I just replaced the social media apps with different apps, or just used the search button to look for things. I was still using my ph0ne way too much.

So phase 2 was started:

  • Start a physical journal (using the Bullet Journal method) and more recently switching over to Illustrative Journaling where I combine words with drawings, it's heaps of fun!
  • Start (and finish) reading 'Digital Minimalism' by Cal Newport
  • Remove all the clutter (Marie Kondo style):
    • Remove all subscriptions from mailing lists, Reddit pages, YouTube subs, Facebook pages and friends, etc. that are not giving me any value. Goodbye people I haven't spoken to in 10 years, goodbye random YouTube accounts I once used to follow but haven't watched in the part year!
    • Do the above process 3 times, that way you'll declutter more!

And it was better, but we still weren't there yet. So on to phase 3:

  • The Digital Declutter
    • For 30 days, stop using any form of optional technology. After the 30 days, think about reintroducing optional technology by a strict set of rules: Does the technology provide any value to me and is it the best way of providing that value?
    • Find an alternative way to spend all the free time you're getting extra! We're talking 2-3 hours of extra free time per day here, so I choose to pick up a new hobby: drawing!

And now I'm finally in a stage where I'm happy with my media usage, I'm a happier person, I have a new hobby that I love and that doesn't involve using a screen (but I am using my screens to learn how to do my new hobby, that's perfectly fine!)

So tl;dr: Read 'Digital Minimalis' by Cal Newport, it'll open your eyes about how social media and phones are sucking away our attention and free time. Break the cycle by introducing a digital detox, and then gently reintroduce technology back into your life, but in a good way (again: read the book, it's great!)