Digital Minimalism
Digital Minimalism:Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport
My coffee cup rating:
☕️☕️☕️☕️ ☕️
I’ve become increasingly interested in my social media habits over the past couple of years and have been slowly trying to find more value in the time I spend on it. No matter how much I focused though, I would always waste time on the platforms. I felt like there was something wrong with me like I just needed more control over myself. It wasn’t until I read Cal Newport's book Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World that I found out these platforms have been designed to be addictive. No wonder I was having a hard time not using them, and come to find out I’m not alone.
The main premise of this book revolves around a term Cal calls digital minimalism. It’s defined like this:
Digital Minimalism: 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.
This definition lifted the blinders so to speak and I started to realize all of the time and effort I had been putting into these platforms were providing very little value and a lot of distraction. One way Cal suggests gaining more clarity over your online activities is to do a 'digital declutter.' The exercise goes like this, for thirty days you take a vacation from the optional tech in your life. During this period, you find other activities to spend your time on - preferably things that provide value to you like reading, family time, exercise, etc. Once the thirty days are up, reintroduce the tech back into your life and see what value it brings. For me, and many others who have done the exercise, the value just wasn't there-it was time to say goodbye to social media.
Another idea that hit home for me was the practice of solitude. So much of our current daily lives are inundated with notifications, emails, distractions, etc we find ourselves with less and less solitude. Cal calls this phenomenon solitude deprivation, and it’s defined like this:
Solitude Deprivation: A state in which you spend close to zero time alone with your own thoughts and free of input from other minds.
The practice of solitude isn’t a new concept as Cal gives examples from Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and Friedrich Nietzsche on the importance of solitude in creating a healthy fulfilling life. Our modern life has something they never had though- a smartphone. Now it’s possible for the first time in history to fully abolish solitude from our daily lives. Cal suggests time away from this new form of distraction and interruption to help combat this. One such practice is going on long walks alone, without a phone, earbuds, and preferably in nature. I’ve been deploying this practice and have been really benefiting from it. Just make sure you set aside time in your schedule-this makes it much easier to accomplish.
Another practice I’ve been quick to implement from the book is cultivating leisure time. This was the biggest hurdle for many participants in the thirty day declutter. When you take away social media for most people, it creates ample amounts of free time allowing them to spend it on other activities. I think this is why Cal spends a good portion of the book looking at the various facets of leisure time and how they can be applied to a fulfilling life. The biggest take away I got from this section was this-schedule your free time. I’ve never thought about doing this before, but it makes total sense. The idea is to divide your leisure time into two sections, high-quality and low-quality leisure. These two distinctions allow you to prioritize what you value most and cut back on the things that don’t.
“This book should come standard with every smartphone purchase.”
This is the second book I’ve read from Cal and I must say his writing keeps getting better. This book was very easy to understand as his writing style is a mix between blogger and professor- the perfect combo in my opinion, especially for this topic. Although I’ve covered a few concepts that stood out to me, there are many many other nuggets that make this book well worth the read. If you have a smartphone, social media, or just want tips on staying focused in a world of distraction, please do yourself a favor and pick up this book!
More Resources:
Cals Website: Cal Newport
Great podcast interview about the book:
Rich Roll Podcast | Digital Minimalism with Cal Newport