What is digital minimalism?

4 steps to start minimising today

Minimalism is far more than just decluttering your home.

Cal Newport defines digital minimalism (in his book ‘Digital Minimalism’) as -

‘A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.’

I first read Cal’s book in early 2021. At this time, I was spending a lot of time online. I’d just seen a massive growth in my Instagram, resulting in spending hours a day on this app. I was starting to recognise compulsive behaviors that didn’t sit well with me.

Although this book resonated with me and I agreed with all the author’s arguments, this didn’t change my behavior. I justified my screen time with a myriad of excuses, such as needing social media to grow my business and stay connected with friends. However, that little niggle never really went away.

Flash forward to October 2022 and things have drastically changed. I’ve gradually moved away from social media and finally made the decision to leave Instagram, which was my biggest vice (read more about this here).

I’m now very strict about how I spend time online. I’ve adapted the techniques from Cal’s book and added my own along the way. This has made a massive difference to both my mental health and productivity.

I’ve shared my 4 key lessons below, to help you start your own digital minimalism journey.

1. Go on a digital detox

I know, this is probably not what you want to hear.

The idea of a digital detox is scary. It is something I avoided for a long time.

However, this is something that Cal recommends in his book. He suggests taking a full month where you remove all the optional technologies from your life.

You need to decide what counts as ‘optional’ in your life. Be brutal with this. This includes things like personal social media accounts and streaming platforms. Non-optional services generally include those you need to use for your job i.e., work emails. Just because you use something regularly, this doesn’t mean its not ‘optional’.

This is the only way you can assess the value of your digital world.

2. Be intentional

Once you’ve completed your detox, you need to assess what, if anything, you want to bring back into your life.

Cal includes a useful test for this. He says that to allow optional technology to be let back into your life, it must -

1. Serve something you deeply value (offering some benefit is not enough)

2. Be the best way to use technology to serve this value (if it’s not, replace it with something better)

3. Have a role in your life that is constrained with a standard operating procedure that specifies when and how you use it

I’d recommend taking each digital service in turn and seeing if it passes these tests. Cal uses the term ‘standard operating procedure’ to essentially describe a set of rules that are intentionally created for each service so that it is used in the most optimal way.

3. Nourish ‘offline’ activities

In our digital world, it is often easy to forget about activities that take place away from the screen.

Before you start your detox, you’ll want to think about activities that can replace digital services, to make this process much simpler.

This can look like picking up new hobbies or figuring out new solutions to problems you usually solve with digital devices.

These offline activities can extend beyond your detox period. I’ve personally found that I spend a lot more time reading and am even more present when spending time in nature. I’ve maintained my relationships by taking the time to message people and scheduling ‘in person’ time, rather than just engaging on social media.

I have a much richer life now, which helps combat the allure of the digital world.

4. Set up healthy habits

Although you will be in a much better mindset after your detox, it can be easy to slip into old behaviors that are not in line with your digital minimalism values.

To combat this, it can be useful to set some healthy habits in place. Those that I’ve found useful include -

• Turning off all non-essential notifications on my phone. I now only get notified if a close friend/family member messages me, at certain times of day, or I receive a phone call.

• Setting app timers. This is useful for regulating the time spent on apps I still do use i.e., prevents mindless consumption of YouTube videos

• Leaving my phone outside the bedroom. I charge my phone downstairs overnight, which has the additional benefit that it makes me get up in the morning!

• Avoiding checking my phone at certain times. I restrict my phone checking (e.g., emails and YouTube notifications) to once a day during my work hours.

• Removing apps from my phone. I no longer have YouTube or email apps on my phone, which makes it more difficult to compulsively check throughout the day.

• Having regular ‘no-phone’ days. I try and do this on a Sunday with the aim of putting my phone in a drawer and leaving it there!

For me, digital minimalism has had the most dramatic impact on my mental well-being. It lifted a burden I didn’t even know was there. It is an ongoing process and I may never be a perfect ‘digital minimalist’, but I’m confident that I will never fall into damaging mindless habits again.

Until next week

Molly xx

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