In the following video you'll learn how to regain control of your technology use and reclaim your ability to concentrate.
Free 1-Page PDF Summary and Video Summary by Productivity Game
Key Takeaways
"Minimalists don’t mind missing out on small things; what worries them much more is diminishing the large things they already know for sure make a good life good."
Digital Minimalism is a philosophy for technology use rooted in your deepest values.
Every app on a digital minimalist phone is used to enhance one of their core values.
- For example a kindle reading app enhances their core value of learning.
- A note-taking app enhances their core value of creating by improving their ability to capture ideas and write impromptu essays.
- A single messaging app like Whatsapp replaces all other messaging and social media apps because that digital minimalist deems Whatsapp to be the best app for sharing photos and staying connected with family abroad.
A digital minimalist makes a concerted effort to ensure that they are not consuming junk in their digital diet–like social media apps, mindless games, and other apps primarily used to alleviate boredom.
What are your deepest values?
Is every app on your phone and every website shortcut in your browser enhance those values.
If you don’t filter your technology use through your values, you will clutter your life with distracting technology and destroy your ability to concentrate.
When your life is cluttered with digital devices, part of your mind is constantly wondering what’s happening on those device…
- What new shows are recommended on Netflix?
- What’s happening on my social media feed?
- What’s the price of my stocks today?
- What new messages do I have in my inbox?
If you do find some mental bandwidth to focus on your work, eventually the dings, rings, and pings from your devices will fracture your attention and make it harder and harder to concentrate.
No matter what field you work in, your ability to concentrate is a superpower.
Losing that ability is like Steph Curry losing his ability to shoot a three-point shot or a major league pitcher in baseball losing his ability to throw a fastball.
Without concentration, you can’t perform your best and you can’t produce work that moves the needle and changes the trajectory of your career.
Therefore it’s imperative you reduce your attachment to devices and declutter your digital life so you can recover and sustain your ability to concentrate.
Week 1: Spend an hour a day alone without your devices
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
Your challenge for a week is to be away from your phone or other media devices for an hour a day. That means no text, no phone calls, no news and no podcasts.
During your hour of solitude, go for a long walk, bike ride alone or practice a hobby without your phone, computer or tv nearby.
Think of this hour of solitude as time in which you store up your productive power.
Just like a dam can generate hydropower by interrupting the flow of water in a river, you can produce productive power and strengthen your ability to concentrate by interrupting social input and being alone with your thoughts.
If you doubt the productive power of being alone with your thoughts, go in your office right now, shut the door, turn your phone off, and do nothing but sit there and think or do a task you’ve been avoiding for weeks.
After a few minutes of device deprivation and solitude, you’ll probably start generating ideas and actually want to get to work on that dreaded task.
To get started with your week one challenge, create a solitude plan.
Week 2: Stop using devices during downtime
It’s hard to declutter our digital lives because most of us use devices during downtime to de stress.
During my downtime after a long day of work I lay on the couch and watch youtube or play speed chess on my phone, but I find that this digital downtime is never as enjoyable as I think it will be and I never feel energized or fully relaxed afterward.
This got me thinking, is spending time on my devices the best way to enjoy my downtime?
Author Cal Newport has studied the best way to optimize downtime or what he refers to as leisure time.
After extensive research, Newport discovered three leisure lessons:
Leisure Lesson 1: Demanding activity is more restorative than passive consumption. By expanding energy you gain energy. It’s like the old entrepreneurial adage you have to spend money to make money.
Leisure Lesson 2: Using skills to produce valuable things in the physical world is more stimulating and rejuvenating than spending time in the digital world.
Leisure Lesson 3: Real world structured social interactions are more enjoyable and rewarding than social interactions on devices.
Write down at least two demanding activities: Might be exercising or learning a new hobby.
Write down at least two skill based activities that produce things in the physical world like cooking or gardening.
Write down at least two structured social activities: like playing board games with family or having coffee with a friend.
All of these you can do instead of consuming content or playing games on your devices.
Week 3: Be an anti-texter
If you’re like most people, your friends and family have trained you to stop what you’re doing and respond to their text immediately. It’s as if you have an obligation to be on call when their next text arrives.
Over the last decade texting has largely replaced real conversation, but as many people are finding, texting doesn’t form strong social bonds.
A social life sustained by texting isn’t as rich as a social life sustained by frequent face-to-face conversations and over the phone conversations.
Therefore stop being on call for the next text and start strengthening relationships by taking the following anti-texting challenge:
1. First turn off all text notifications so texts don’t appear on your home screen of your smartphone.
2. Select three times a day you will respond to text during the day. If someone gets mad that you didn’t get back to them quicker, say I only check my text a few times a day. If something urgent comes up call me.
3. Lastly, when someone texts you a question that could lead to a text chain, call them. If you have a long commute use your drive time to call someone who has recently texted you.
"You could be the one person in their life who actually talks to them on a regular basis, forming a deeper more nuanced relationship than any number of exclamation points and bitmap emojis can provide."
Conclusion
With this fresh perspective on your technology use, you can start decluttering your digital life and strengthen your ability to concentrate, so you can do more deep meaningful work.