Read Digital Minimalism (or our article about it) and were amazed? Want to start your digital declutter but feel overwhelmed with the amount of things to do? Is the pressure to do everything at once making you turn back to the comfortable blanket of social media?
Worry no more, we’ve narrowed down 5 quick steps towards a minimalist digital presence to help you kickstart your digital minimalism journey:
1. Just do it
Take a deep breath, open your social media apps folder, and just do it. Just delete them. This might seem like the hardest step to do, and it is, but remember, it’s your phone and your apps, not the other way round. Simply uninstalling them will not only give you a sense of relief, but you will immediately be faced with the realization that you do, in fact, have a lot of free time. In choosing what apps to discard and which ones to keep, consider this: it is optional unless its temporary removal would harm or significantly disrupt the daily operation of your professional or personal life.
2. Put a timer on your apps
Okay, maybe uninstalling them at once is too big a step for you. No worries. You can begin by putting a timer on the apps that you believe take up most of your time. There are digital well-being and parental control settings that allow you to do this on most phones, but if yours doesn’t have it, third-party apps will do just fine! A timer will restrict your use of the app after the allotted time is over, which can act as a great restraint that we might be unable to put on ourselves.
3. Spend time alone
This might seem irrelevant to our concern here, but hear me out. Persistent communication through screens has the ability to alter our brain chemistry, and I’m not even exaggerating. Additionally, constant availability of entertainment at our disposal not only reduces our attention span, but makes us positively terrified of boredom, so much so that we cannot stand being alone with our thoughts. This is why solitude is important. Take some time out of your day (even 5-10 minutes will do) where you are away from technology and all other forms of distraction. This will enable you to deal with your emotions and process your feelings at least for a short time everyday, which may result in a more stable long-term mental health status.
4. Hide the device
This might seem obvious, but hiding our devices and putting them out of sight is a great way to decrease the amount of time we spend on them. In the time span of writing this one article, I have double-tapped my phone screen numerous times, even when I know there are no notifications. Just because it is right in front of my eyes, I cannot help but tap on it. This, I’m sure, isn’t a unique experience and something that pretty much all of us go through. To put the phone out of sight and away from reach are excellent ways to avoid this, especially when we are working on something that demands focus, or having a real life conversation that requires attention.
5. Track your progress
You can also start your journey by beginning to track your time. Figure out where you spend your time, what tasks are essential, how much time is unnecessarily spent on social media and the like. Once you have this, you can pick any of the above mentioned tips to start, or start in your own unique way. Or, if you have already begun your journey, then you can track your progress and record what you do with all your new-found extra time. And treat yourself accordingly!
It is important to realize that you wouldn’t need to spend all of your newly found time on ‘productive’ activities, you can simply enjoy yourself with a book or a cup of tea. The focus is on taking back your life, not taking it and turning it into a product. It’s your time and your life, enjoy it how you want. Remember that our compulsive use of these apps is not the result of a character flaw, but instead the realization of a massively profitable business plan. As such, it is possible to change this and take control of our lives once more. Living consciously and intentionally is extremely fulfilling and we hope this article enables you to make time for the more important and pleasant things in life!
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