Digital Minimalism: How to declutter your tech usage to save time, money, and sanity

January 27, 2023 Catherine Agopcan

The most important thing about a technology is how it changes people. - Jaron Lanier

Back in 2018, I wrote about my desire to unchain from technology. I had been struggling to find that balance between being active in an online community, but also pulling back and taking time for myself and connecting in real life. The struggle was real especially when the majority of my days were in front of a computer, writing, interacting, emailing, and connecting with others.

During that time period, I embarked on a few simple changes to unchain myself from technology which I will share in this post in the hopes they will help you too. Part of my frustration with the technology around me was how unproductive it was making me - or more specifically how it was just making my brain feel like mush. I succumbed to the compulsive need to check my feeds, scroll, and take out my phone whenever I had free time. Of course, it’s easy to blame yourself if you don’t understand a little bit about how today’s technology is being designed.

But wait though, is it our fault?

The one thing we have to understand is that all of the tech that we see today has been engineered and designed to be addictive. There are now many studies confirming this (resources below) and the effect of all of this addictive technology has been negative on our brains and our mental health.

A great read to help you learn more about this: Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked. I would highly recommend this book if you want to learn some of the ways today’s apps are being engineered to keep us scrolling and liking for hours on end. The secret is to play with the reward system in our simple brains to release small dopamine hits without us ever realizing it.

Apps and websites sprinkle intermittent variable rewards all over their products because it’s good for business.’ Attention-catching notification badges, or the satisfying way a single finger swipe swoops in the next potentially interesting post, are often carefully tailored to elicit strong responses.

I was on TikTok. Briefly. 8 days to be exact. I created 3 videos in total. Shared one publicly, kept two privately, and consumed a good amount of content in that short period of time. I then left the app and never looked back.

Now, I love technology as much as the next person. I have a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree related to tech and over a decade of professional experience working in IT and adtech (and maybe that’s part of the reason why I can look at technology with a critical eye) and see it for what it is.

What is the digital attention economy?

Let’s first start with a definition of the term “attention economy”. It was coined by psychologist, economist, and Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon, who posited that attention was the “bottleneck of human thought”. It limits what we can do. He also noted that “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention,” suggesting that multitasking is a myth. Lots of studies have proven that in order to actually get deep work done, you are better off focusing on one thing.

Then in 1997, theoretical physicist Micheal Goldhaber introduced the idea that “the currency of the new economy won't be money, but attention”. This was a new radical theory of value. He theorized that instead of us living in a material-based economy, we will shift to an attention-based economy.

And here we are in 2023. Today, thanks in part to advances in digital technology, capitalism, and the design of addictive technology, humans are now challenged to consume as much content and information as possible despite the fact that we have limited amount of attention spans. Today’s big companies compete for our time, our eyeballs, our attention, and our money in order to become profitable and successful. This gets easier to do the more connected we are with digital technology. Companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and TikTok, require our attention to survive, and we gladly give up our attention for the sake of our time, money, and sanity.

Keep in mind too that part of the attention we give isn’t just towards the content, but to all of the advertising that these platforms run on. These platforms are “FREE” because payment is in the form of our attention and our wallet. Many of us are now in a constant state of perpetual distraction which impacts our decision-making abilities. Many of us are in a state of constant passive consumption instead of intentional consumption which leads to wasted money and time.

What is Digital Minimalism?

See this Amazon product in the original post

“Digital Minimalism” is a term popularized by author and computer scientist Cal Newport. In this book of the same name, Digital Minimalism, he defines it 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.”

The book doesn’t provide quick tips and tricks on how to get off Instagram or Facebook or Reddit but offers strategies to get you to focus your time on more value-added internet browsing and participation. It asks you to experiment and try things out for 30 days. The book is set into two parts. In the Foundation section, he lays the groundwork on the current state of technology, what digital minimalism means and how to do a digital declutter. The second part is called Practices where he provides strategies on how to further lock down your digital minimalism practices.

3 PRINCIPLES OF DIGITAL MINIMALISM:

Clutter is costly.
Clutter in all of its forms takes up our time, money, and mental energy. We live in a noisy world and it is easy to get distracted by everything vying for our attention.
Optimization is important.
Whether it’s a new tech product or application or a new object brought into the home, we have to think about how it will be used. Will it be useful 2 weeks from now? There’s a question I often ask when I bring something into my home “How will this item affect the way I use my time?” It’s a spin on understanding if this really adds value.
Intentionality is satisfying.
We need to understand that everything in our lives should have a purpose.

How to do a Digital Declutter

A digital declutter is an audit of your entire digital life, followed by removing or reorganizing everything into a simpler, more secure, and more backed-up system.

A cluttered environment gives the feeling that various things are competing for our attention, which can be mentally taxing and stressful. This makes it harder to focus and reflect, think creatively, and make important decisions.

Here’s how to start your Digital Declutter Process:

Put aside a 30-day period during which you will take a break from optional technologies in your life.
During this break, explore and rediscover activities that you find satisfying and meaningful.
At the end of the break, reintroduce optional technology back into your life starting from a blank slate. For each technology you reintroduce, determine what value it serves in your life and maximize this value and utility.

There are absolutely going to be trial and error and failures when you venture into a digital declutter.

Remember that you and your willpower are competing against companies whose primary mission is to get your attention. Sometimes they will win, and sometimes you will win, and so a digital declutter requires effort from you.

The big call to action in Digital Minimalism book is actually #2 of the Digital Declutter Process in which he encourages the reader to rediscover an activity that is satisfying and meaningful, essentially asking us to replace all of that time we spend on tech, apps, and social media with an activity that provides more value to in the long-run. He goes in to describe a few practices to follow such as “Spend Time Alone” which another former techno-geek highly recommends. You can read more about that in this post Making the Case for Solitude. Newport also recommends that we engage in real-life conversation instead of passive “Likes” because it turns out meeting someone for coffee and lunch for a life update is more meaningful than liking all of their life update posts. Lastly, we need to start being OK with leisure. Leisure can lead to more productive pursuits which in the long-run lead to happier lives. Instead of spending free time on passive consumption, let’s focus instead on using our skills to produce valuable things in the physical world. An act that many of us no longer do because we are too busy consuming instead of producing.

Busy is a choice so we have to be mindful of that.

What would you do if you replace all of the time you spend on social media? Could you start a business? Could you learn a new skill? Could you find a new job that pays more and that you love? Could you spend more time with your spouse or children?

Tips for Doing a Digital Declutter

After working on my own digital declutter journey, here are some tips that may help you as you take a step back from all of this technology. I am also very aware that as I run a business, a blog, and a YouTube channel, social media and technology will very much be part of my life, and I’m in the process of finding a balance and a system that works for my own needs.

Keep Things Simple

While it’s tempting to have all of the latest gadgets, it’s good to be mindful of the kinds of technology you bring into your home. Keep this question in mind when you purchase something: How will this item affect how I use my time? or How will this item affect how our family uses our time?

It’s tempting to get a second TV so that there’s no argument about who watches what, but how will that affect how your family spends time together? Will there now be two separate groups watching two separate shows?

If you are purchasing something new, consider getting something that doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles. The IOT or the Internet of Things has been lauded as the future, but I have to be honest with you that I could care less if my fridge or my toaster is connected to the internet. I’d rather it not be. I’d rather not have to troubleshoot these extras. And I’d rather for some of these gadgets and appliances to work as intended without the planned obsolescence that most often comes with these newer technologies. Just toast my bread, don’t give me the weather and the news, please!

Don’t Read the News First Thing In the Morning

It’s so tempting to sign-up for these services that consolidate news and other information, but I think the best thing to do is to actually not even read the news first thing in the morning. Unless you work in a field that requires you to do so, I’d recommend spending the first hour of your day not being bombarded by negative energy. The news can certainly prime you up and can lead to outrage porn which increases your stress response. Yes, it’s good to be informed, but take some time to reflect if reading these kinds of email help or hinder your day.

Deleting Apps

Delete apps on your phone to reduce mindless scrolling or the very passive “checking something”. It’s so easy to get distracted when you have access to everything. Start getting intentional about how you use your phone so that you aren’t exposing your brain to too much mindless junk.

Find a Home for Your Phone

In my own digital minimalism journey, one of the best outcomes I could ever ask for was that I no longer bring my phone into our bedroom. It has a home on my desk or on the kitchen counter. This means that I am not checking it late into the night and it also means I am not checking it first thing in the morning.

To be honest, I used to sleep with my phone under my pillow and sometimes would check my work email in the middle of the night. This always led to me spending the next hour in a state of anxiety thinking about how to reply to emails. The practice of finding a home for my phone always means that when I’m at home I am more focused on the tasks at hand.

Unsubscribe/Unfollow

It’s time that we start carefully curating what we expose ourselves to. If feeling certain kinds of emotions after leaving a social media platform, it might be time to start unsubscribing and unfollowing certain accounts and influencers. This also goes for emails. Email marketing remains to be a very lucrative way to get people to buy things so if spending money on things you don’t need is a problem you are attempting to overcome, unsubscribing from marketing emails can help you reduce exposure and temptation.

Turn Notifications Off

Many of us can probably turn off the majority of the notifications on our phones. From text/messages, email alerts, news alerts, etc., a lot of things can wait for our attention. Figure out whose messages you deem important and set rules for that, but turn off everything else to reduce the distraction. Sometimes, all it takes is one simple message to get us on the rabbit hole of checking every other social media platform so we have to re-condition ourselves to not respond to all notifications.

Delete Social Media Apps - use browser versions if you have to

Another way to reduce your dependency on social media is to delete their apps. Instead, use the desktop or the browser versions. This may mean you still access media, but because it’s not as seamless and easy to do, you end up not doing it as often. That small barrier can be enough though for people to reduce that constant need to check their social media feeds.

No Phone, No Problem

Challenge yourself to not rely so much on the phone. Consider leaving it at home every once in a while so that you aren’t distracted by whatever your phone has to offer. This can be a strange thing to do given we are in 2023, but a simple exercise to re-train your brain now to constantly expose itself to stimuli and does regain some sanity back. It's important to reset once in a while and understand that there are people in front of you that matter.

Conclusion

We all have to be mindful about the impact of technology in our lives. Is technology really making our lives better? How can we have a relationship with technology that helps us instead of hinders us.

Check out our other videos on Digital Minimalism below.

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