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

STEP #2: TAKE A THIRTY-DAY BREAK

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

PRACTICE: DELETE SOCIAL MEDIA FROM
YOUR PHONE

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

Leisure Lesson #1: ON CRAFT AND SATISFACTION

<ul><li>Put SMARTPHONE in the kitchen cupboard. </li><li>Use flip phone or Light Phone.</li></ul>

PRACTICE: DUMB DOWN YOUR
SMARTPHONE

<ul><li>Unpredictable rewards and social tagging can create a strong psychological pull to technology</li><li>Rebuilding our relationship with technology based on our values is more effective than just using tips and tricks to limit our usage.</li></ul>

Foundation

<ul><li>Take a thirty-day break from optional technologies.</li><li>Use the break to rediscover meaningful and satisfying activities.</li><li>Reintroduce technologies starting from a blank slate and determine their value and specific use to maximize that value.</li></ul>Reasons of failure1. Subtle mistakes in implementation2. Technology restriction rules that were eithertoo vague or too strict3. 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

The Digital Declutter: ON (RAPIDLY) BECOMING MINIMALIST

<ul><li>Optional technologies to take a break from include text messaging, social media apps, streaming services, and video games.</li><li>Exceptions include checking email for professional purposes.</li><li>Lack of information from optional technologies may expose you to alternative uses of time and won't cause critical damage to social life.</li><li>Operating procedures should specify how and when to use a particular technology.</li></ul>1. Custom notification of text message2. Sign in from desktop pc and not from phone3. listen to podcasts on daily commute only4. Watching movies with friends only5. Limit watching two episodes per week

STEP #1: DEFINE YOUR TECHNOLOGY
RULES

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

PRACTICE: Don’t Click “Like”

<ul><li>Only thoughts reached by walking have value.</li><li>Walking is a fantastic source of solitude.</li></ul>

PRACTICE: TAKE LONG WALKS

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

PRACTICE: RECLAIMING CONVERSATION

<ul><li>The Seasonal Leisure Plan</li><li>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).</li><li>Identify a concrete accomplishment that has clear criteria for completion and that can reasonably fit within a season.</li></ul>

PRACTICE: FOLLOW LEISURE PLANS

Join first and work out the other issues later.

PRACTICE: JOIN SOMETHING

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

Leisure Lesson #3: THE LEISURE RENAISSANCE

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

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

THE BENNETT PRINCIPLE

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.

STEP #3: REINTRODUCE TECHNOLOGY

We need solitude to thrive as human beings, and in recent years, without even realizing it, we’ve been systematically reducing this crucial ingredient from our lives.

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

PRACTICE: LEAVE YOUR PHONE AT HOME

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

Join the Attention Resistance

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

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

PRACTICE: WRITE LETTERS TO YOURSELF

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

Leisure Lesson #2: SUPERCHARGED SOCIALITY

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.”

Reclaim Leisure: LEISURE AND THE GOOD LIFE

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

PRACTICE: USE SOCIAL MEDIA LIKE A
PROFESSIONAL

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

PRACTICE: HOLD CONVERSATION OFFICE
HOURS

<ul><li>Digital life can be exhausting and overwhelming</li><li>Digital Sabbath suggests moderate approaches to digital usage, such as keeping phones away from the bed or turning off notifications</li><li>Digital minimalism proposes spending less time using technology for a healthier relationship with it</li><li>Early versions of Facebook and the iPhone had different functionalities compared to their present-day counterparts</li><li>Smartphones and apps are designed to encourage prolonged use and attention engineering</li><li>Addiction to technology is a behavioral addiction that is moderate in comparison to chemical dependencies</li></ul>

<ul><li>Setting the phone to Do Not Disturb mode during predetermined times can increase focus and reduce anxiety.</li><li>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.</li><li>This approach can strengthen real-world relationships by providing an opportunity for genuine conversation.</li><li>Text messaging is convenient but should not be treated as a replacement for face-to-face conversation.</li></ul>

PRACTICE: CONSOLIDATE TEXTING

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

Digital Minimalism

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

PRACTICE: EMBRACE SLOW MEDIA

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

Conclusion

We enter solitude, in which also we lose loneliness.

<ul><li>A computer can increase productivity by shutting down some of its core functions.</li><li>Switching between different applications can make a person's interaction with the computer less productive.</li><li>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.</li></ul>

PRACTICE: TURN YOUR DEVICES INTO
SINGLE-PURPOSE COMPUTERS

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

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

Spend Time Alone

<ul><li>Trading extra money to specialists for fixing things can free up time for leisure activities</li><li>Learning new skills can be a source of high-quality leisure</li><li>Developing handiness can help tap into satisfying activities</li><li>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</li><li>It's suggested to try learning and applying a new skill every week for six weeks</li></ul>

PRACTICE: FIX OR BUILD SOMETHING
EVERY WEEK

<ul><li>Cluttering our lives with non-crucial things such as apps is costly in terms of the amount of life exchanged for it.</li><li>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.</li><li>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.</li></ul>

THE PRINCIPLES OF DIGITAL MINIMALISM

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

PRACTICE: SCHEDULE YOUR LOW-QUALITY
LEISURE

Digital Minimalism isn't just Anti-Facebook, but a guide to escape from Virtual Reality and engage in real life with technology as an assistant, not as the master of our lives. ChatGPT is used to summarize and make bullet points. 

A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestseller "Newport is making a bid to be the Marie Kondo of technology: someone with an actual plan for helping you realize the digital pursuits that do, and don't, bring value to your life."--Ezra Klein, Vox Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world. In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives. Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. They can get lost in a good book, a woodworking project, or a leisurely morning run. They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the experience. They stay informed about the news of the day, but don't feel overwhelmed by it. They don't experience "fear of missing out" because they already know which activities provide them meaning and satisfaction. Now, Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement, and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world. Common sense tips, like turning off notifications, or occasional rituals like observing a digital sabbath, don't go far enough in helping us take back control of our technological lives, and attempts to unplug completely are complicated by the demands of family, friends and work. What we need instead is a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions. Drawing on a diverse array of real-life examples, from Amish farmers to harried parents to Silicon Valley programmers, Newport identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude. He then shares strategies for integrating these practices into your life, starting with a thirty-day "digital declutter" process that has already helped thousands feel less overwhelmed and more in control. Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values, rather than letting it use you. This book shows the way.

books

Books

Cal Newport is Provost’s Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University, and the author of seven books. His ideas and writing are frequently featured in major publications and on TV and radio.From his website: "I write about the intersection of digital technology and culture. I’m particularly interested in our struggle to deploy these tools in ways that support instead of subvert the things we care about in both our personal and professional lives."

WENDELL BERRY

Similar ideas

The Five Forms Of Being Alone

Embracing solitude

Solitude, Loneliness And Isolation