I've been on the digital minimalism bandwagon for quite some time. I abandoned facebook in 2016. I haven't stopped by Instagram in several months. I took the email apps off my phone a while ago.
But I’d like my digital minimalism practice a bit deeper than it is. Spring is here, the weather is warming, and I don’t want to waste a single extra moment of my life on a low-value digital distraction than is absolutely necessary. I’ve allowed a few digital habits to creep in to my life over the winter than aren’t serving me. I can feel the tug of behavioral addiction.
It feels a bit cliche, or post-trendy, to do this, but I think there’s something valuable in doing and talking about this now, after everyone with a blog already has a post on their digital declutter month. It signals that this isn’t over, it isn’t just a fad. Digital behavioral addiction is an enormous problem and it hasn’t gone anywhere. The more we mimetically spread digital minimalism, and effective practices like digital declutters, the more we start to normalize healthy relationships to our technology. Hat tip to Chris Istace specifically for the inspiration.
So I'm going to do a Cal Newport style digital declutter this month, where I take a 30 day break from ‘optional’ technologies. My rules:
100% Banned technologies/platforms:
Artstation
Digital News (a newspaper is okay, if I can find one)
Podcasts
Audiobooks
All non-youtube social media
Bans with rules:
Youtube: tutorials/instructions only. No music or entertainment.
Work email: check once a day, M-Thur. Weekly Review sweep on Saturday. (Exceptions allowable for deadlines or mission critical back and forths.)
Personal email: check once a day, M-Thur. Weekly Review sweep on Saturday.
Forum: Turn off or filter email notifications. Check once a week, on Saturday.
Signal: Check twice a day, keep my group chats muted.
WhatsApp: Once a day.
Maps: only allowable to look up a route, which then must be copied down on paper or memorized. No real-time navigation.
At the end of the month, to reintroduce technologies, the tech must:
Serve something I deeply value.
Be the best way to use tech to serve that value (if it isn't, replace with something that is)
Have a role in my life that is constrained with a standard operating procedure that specifies when and how I use it.