Santanu Borah's Key Ideas from Digital Minimalism
by Cal Newport

• Minimalists focus on a small number of carefully selected online activities that align with their values
• They prioritize large things that make their life good over small things they might miss out on
• Minimalists use hacks like replacing smartphones with basic flip phones, restricting digital information intake, and reducing social circles to optimize their online experience
• They use online magazines instead of Twitter and follow only a small number of inspiring accounts on Instagram
• The goal is to use technology in a way that enhances their life and doesn't detract from it

• Cluttering our lives with non-crucial things such as apps is costly in terms of the amount of life exchanged for it.
• Optimizing technology use is important, not just in the type of technology used, but also in how it's used, such as watching Netflix only with friends or uninstalling social media apps and using a computer instead.
• Being intentional about how we engage with technology can be satisfying, such as committing to minimalism like the Old Order Amish and urban Mennonites who find satisfaction in their simple technology use.

• Take a thirty-day break from optional technologies.
• Use the break to rediscover meaningful and satisfying activities.
• Reintroduce technologies starting from a blank slate and determine their value and specific use to maximize that value.

Reasons of failure

1. Subtle mistakes in implementation

2. Technology restriction rules that were either

too vague or too strict

3. Not planning what to replace these technologies with during the declutter period—leading to anxiety and boredom.

4. Temporary detox is a much weaker resolution than trying to permanently change your life

• Optional technologies to take a break from include text messaging, social media apps, streaming services, and video games.
• Exceptions include checking email for professional purposes.
• Lack of information from optional technologies may expose you to alternative uses of time and won't cause critical damage to social life.
• Operating procedures should specify how and when to use a particular technology.

1. Custom notification of text message

2. Sign in from desktop pc and not from phone

3. listen to podcasts on daily commute only

4. Watching movies with friends only

5. Limit watching two episodes per week

• Detox symptoms include boredom, urge to check social media, and wanting to look something up.
• These feelings will pass with time.
• Rediscover hobbies and passions that don't involve technology before reintroducing optional technologies.
• Suggestions include reading, painting, coding, writing, visiting the library, spending time with family, playing piano, and learning to sew.
• Technology should serve as a supporting role only, with real satisfaction coming from other tasks.

1. Serve something you deeply value (offering some benefit is not enough).

2. Be the best way to use technology to serve this value (if it’s not, replace it with something better).

3. Have a role in your life that is constrained with a standard operating procedure that specifies when and how you use it.

• Replace email newsletters and breaking news with a balanced news portal.
• Read news summary podcast, radio, and newspaper instead of browsing news online.
• Check Twitter feed only once in the weekend.
• Check social media from the web browser on the computer.
• Remove the web browser from the phone to prevent checking answers instantly.
• Jot down ideas in a notebook.
• Set a curfew on the phone for a certain time period.

• Regular doses of solitude are necessary to flourish as a human being.
• Solitude requires moving past reacting to information created by others and focusing on one's own thoughts and experiences.
• Solitude provides new ideas, self-understanding, and closeness to others.
• Attention to new technologies can undermine these benefits of solitude.
• Time alone is necessary to explore and discover what is happening in one's life.
• Friends and love are not enough without time for solitude.
• Mix regular doses of solitude with social interaction to support a fulfilling life.

Living a life with and without a phone is reasonable for protecting against solitude deprivation.

• Only thoughts reached by walking have value.
• Walking is a fantastic source of solitude.

• It is a structured way to make sense of whatever important things are happening in your life at the moment. 
• This behavior necessarily shifts you into a state of productive solitude

• Certain regions in the brain activate when not attempting a task and deactivate when focusing on something specific.
• Targeted and composed information from someone known well correlates with improved well-being.
• Receiving a "like" or broadcast status update doesn't correlate with improved well-being.
• Spending more time connecting on social media can lead to increased isolation.
• Small boosts from social media can't compensate for the loss of real-world time with friends.
• Social media can delude you into thinking you're already serving your relationships well, making further action unnecessary.

• Face-to-face conversation is the most humanizing thing we do.
• Video chat or phone call is also good as long as it involves nuanced analog cues.
• Textual or non-interactive communication is not considered conversation.
• The human brain has evolved to process information generated by face-to-face interactions, not from a single bit.
• Stop leaving comments or clicking "Like" on social media posts, as they are considered trivial interactions.
• Eliminating trivial interactions sends a clear message that conversation is what counts.

• Let the concern about the reaction of others motivate you to invest time in setting up a real conversation.
• You don't need to keep in touch with so many people on social media.

• Setting the phone to Do Not Disturb mode during predetermined times can increase focus and reduce anxiety.
• Treating text messages like emails, and checking them on a regular schedule, can help maintain the advantages of the technology while avoiding its negative effects.
• This approach can strengthen real-world relationships by providing an opportunity for genuine conversation.
• Text messaging is convenient but should not be treated as a replacement for face-to-face conversation.

Put aside set times on set days during which you’re always available for conversation.

As Aristotle elaborates, a life filled with deep thinking is happy because contemplation is an “activity that is appreciated for its own sake . . . nothing is gained from it except the act of contemplation.”

• Require more “mental strain” to enjoy. 
• Expending more energy in your leisure, Bennett tells us, can end up energizing you more.
• You have to spend money to make money” into the language of personal vitality.

• Prioritize demanding activity over passive consumption.
• People have a need to use tools and create things to feel fulfilled.
• Deep activities like writing code that solves a problem give more meaning than shallow activities like answering emails.

• Use skills to produce valuable things in the physical world.
• Social benefits can be obtained from leisure activities.
• Examples include board games, social fitness, recreational sports leagues, volunteering, and working on group projects.
• Successful social leisure activities require spending time with people in person and provide structure for social interaction, such as rules, terminology, and shared goals.

• Seek activities that require real-world, structured social interactions.
• Leisure time should be spent on physical world pursuits, with digital technology serving only as a support role.
• Digital technology can be helpful in setting up or maintaining leisure activities, but it should not be the primary source of leisure.
• YouTube can be a useful resource for quick how-to lessons on various physical world pursuits.

• Trading extra money to specialists for fixing things can free up time for leisure activities
• Learning new skills can be a source of high-quality leisure
• Developing handiness can help tap into satisfying activities
• Examples of DIY activities: changing car oil, installing a ceiling fixture, learning new techniques on an instrument, calibrating a turntable, building furniture, starting a garden plot
• It's suggested to try learning and applying a new skill every week for six weeks

• Schedule in advance the time you spend on low-quality leisure.
• Confining your use of attention-capturing services to well-defined periods.
• Protect your remaining leisure time for more substantial activities.
• It doesn't ask you to completely abandon low-quality diversions.

Join first and work out the other issues later. 

• The Seasonal Leisure Plan
• A seasonal leisure plan is something that you put together three times a year: at the beginning of the fall (early September), at the beginning of the winter (January), and at the beginning of summer (early May).
• Identify a concrete accomplishment that has clear criteria for completion and that can reasonably fit within a season.

• Review your seasonal leisure plan.
• Plan how your leisure activities will fit into your schedule for the upcoming week.
• Figure out what actions you can take during the week to make progress on your leisure objectives.
• Schedule exactly when you'll do these activities.

• When trying to gain something valuable from someone's network, it's important to be prepared and committed to avoiding exploitation.
• This battle requires being aware of the other person's interests and intentions.
• It's important to establish boundaries and maintain autonomy while still working towards a mutually beneficial outcome.

• Quit accessing social media and other distracting services on the go.
• The small extra barrier of needing to log in to a computer can prevent mindless scrolling.
• Services that were claimed indispensable often provide only convenient distractions.
• Facebook use dropped significantly for readers who removed the app from their phones.

• A computer can increase productivity by shutting down some of its core functions.
• Switching between different applications can make a person's interaction with the computer less productive.
• If you need a particular social media tool for work, put aside a few blocks during the day when you can check it, and leave it blocked otherwise.

• Use Instagram to follow a small number of interest-related accounts for a quick browsing experience.
• Use Facebook only for close friends and relatives and occasionally connect with influencers.
• Dunbar's number, 150, is a theoretical limit for successful social circle management.
• Checking in on close social circles on Facebook does not require a lot of time.

• Slow Media requires full concentration and high-quality content.
• It stands out from fast-paced and short-lived media.
• The news consumption habit involves a ritualistic sequence that unfolds on autopilot.
• Engaging with arguments provides satisfaction independent of the content.
• Isolate news consumption to set times during the week and choose a location to give full attention to reading.
• Care about the particular format of reading.

• Put SMARTPHONE in the kitchen cupboard. 
• Use flip phone or Light Phone.

• Adopting digital minimalism is not a onetime process that completes the day after your digital declutter; it instead requires ongoing adjustments.
• It is more about the quality of your life.