a guide to digital minimalism
There were some days I couldn’t even stand a moment of being with my own thoughts. If my phone died while I was outside, I felt socially awkward because somehow staring at anyone or anything other than a screen was a massive faux pas. After I read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, my life changed dramatically. I became so much more cognizant of my extreme screen time. That being said, breaking this habit of grabbing for my phone at any moments notice was a feat to overcome. I’m convinced that at the point that I had read that book, my brain had been rewired completely to fill any gaps in my day with looking at a screen. Because of that, I had to come up with very innovative ways to limit my screen time. It was difficult, and I’m surely not perfect yet, but very soon I will get to the point where the relationship with my phone and laptop is healthy. I hope I can help you get there too. xx Dhruba
First and foremost, turn off all notifications: news, emails (if possible), and social media. Silence all texts except from direct family members/partners. Your phone lighting up or buzzing is designed to grasp your attention when it catches your eye/ear. Avoid notifications at all costs. It’s a massive detriment to your ability to concentrate on any task.
Delete all non-essential apps (any that you don’t need for work) for 30 days. Then reintroduce the ones you genuinely feel you have missed. (This tip is taken from the book Digital Minimalism and I found has helped me quite immensely in decreasing screen time spent on addictive apps). If I don’t have the app, I likely won’t go on my laptop to scroll through the website version.
Set days where you “throw away your phone” – aka no phone days. My day is Sunday because it’s my dedicated time to reset for the week. I find that having a day where you have no obligation to your blog posts, instagram, social media, or email gives you a breath of relief. You could even try two days of the week if you’re daring!
Turn your phone to gray scale during a set period of the day. You’re less likely to scroll through your phone if there aren’t tantalizing colors to look at. On an iPhone: Settings > general > accessibility > display accommodations > color filters > toggle color on > grayscale
Keep your phone in another room as you and do what you want to do on your laptop. It’s objectively harder to scroll through or look through the same apps on your laptop, and I’ve found that having my laptop accessible doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to spend hours looking through my laptop.
Plan out your day full of hobbies and things you enjoy, not just hard tasks. I used to put off doing hard tasks by scrolling through tik tok as a respite. However, if my day was filled with being outdoors or grabbing a nice coffee, I was motivated to continue feeling like I could take on that days challenges. If my day was filled with just chores, then I didn’t necessarily want to start my day and I would just lie in bed for the first hour scrolling through my phone. Basically, an object in motion stays in motion (but to get it in motion, we need to feel full of life for that day).
Being bored is okay and it’s good. It gives you a second to think critically about problems. I hinted to this above, but never being able to sit with your thoughts and subsequently dealing with those thoughts builds anxiety. Long term anxiety will turn into depression. Our generation will spiral unless we stop certain habits from becoming the baseline lifestyle. How to be bored? You do nothing. You sit there, you listen to music, maybe you draw, maybe you read but you don’t look at a single screen. When you do that, you’ll think to yourself – well what do I do now? Then you’re forced to think of something that you like enough to go out and do. This is a tough one because we think that productivity/busyness is the marker of success but it’s not. Consistency and dedication is what is actually needed. But you can only be consistent on a few things at a time, and you can only be dedicated so as long as you have motivation. I think mindless internet scrolling reduces your ability to be both. That might a hot take, but I stand by it.
Change happens slowly, but those people that can focus without the distractions of their phones will excel in the future. They will be the ones that produce valuable content. They will be the ones that don’t suffer from constant baseline anxiety built upon never dealing with problems directly (maybe). They will be the ones that can enjoy and experience a moment to the fullest with no regrets about how much time they’ve wasted. Therefore, the urgency to fix poor digital consumer habits should be at the forefront of everyones goals in the next year.