How to Sustain Minimalism // Digital Minimalism 10

A few months ago, I reserved Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up on audiobook through the Los Angeles County library. It took 18 weeks to get the book. Most books take about two.

With the incredible popularity of minimalism and Marie Kondo starring in a television series, it’s easy to get caught up in trying this trend.

In this article, I discuss why digital minimalism is meant to be a permanent change to the way you live. I also share practices for sustaining the change from Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.

Man’s Search for Meaning

Before electricity, most of the machinery of our world made intuitive sense. How does a letter get to a friend? I hand it to the postman, the post office sorts it, another postman delivers it to my friend. Now, how does email work? I couldn’t tell you, even though I send dozens of emails each week.

While new technologies are powerful and mysterious, we still know what makes a good life. The trouble is being distracted from the things we value.

With physical minimalism, the key is to make space and then enjoy the space you have. Otherwise, you get cluttered again. I believe the same thing about digital minimalism. Complete your digital declutter, and then use the following practices to make good use of the new space in your life.

Practices

1. Solitude

Human beings are not made for constant connection with the hum of the digital world. As Cal Newport explains in his previous book Deep Work we function best with periods of focus and diligent effort followed by periods of downtime to let our minds consolidate the efforts of the day. In a similar way, we do well to cycle between rich connection with people and periods of solitude.

Even Henry David Thoreau went through cycles of connection and solitude while writing Walden. His log cabin is not required to give yourself time for solitude. Solitude can be achieved almost anywhere when you know what it requires. The best solitude definition I’ve heard comes from Lead Yourself First by Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin

“A subjective state in which your mind is free from input from other minds.”

If you’re frantically processing messages at every lull in your day, you will not experience solitude. Instead, try leaving your phone behind. This is the single most effective way for me to find solitude and connect with myself.

Long walks and journaling are also paths to solitude, recommended in Digital Minimalism. Just remember, a long walk that you stream on Instagram is not bringing you solitude. Being without your phone is the foundation for other practices, such as walking and journaling.

2. Real socializing

We are hungry for rich, high bandwidth human connection. Researches have discovered that our first response to mental downtime is to consider our social lives. For this reason, the network of the brain that addresses our social standing has been called the default network.

When we default to thinking about our social standing at all hours of the day, there is an enormous opportunity for social media companies to hack this vulnerability in our psychology and hold a constant presence in our minds. Think: What will people comment on my last post? The use of social media competes with our actual social life in a zero-sum competition. The more time you spend online, the less time you spend in the high bandwidth face-to-face human interaction we crave. Like eating junk food or watching pornography, the cheap and easy substitute is no match for the real thing.

To cultivate real socializing, recognize digital inputs for what they are: the fast food version of socializing. All those likes you click and receive are just French fries and they will never add up to a salad. Instead, consolidate your digital communication. Turn off text notifications and set aside a few times per day to check them. Let yourself miss out on the latest update to the group chat. Instead, have a real conversation. Cal Newport suggests taking this a step further and setting conversation office hours. Do you have a daily commute? Tell your friends that 5:30PM is when you drive home and it’s always a good time to call you. If you enjoy a local pub every Tuesday, tell friends to find you there for a regular chat.

3. Leisure

The chapter titled “Reclaim Leisure” is the longest in Digital Minimalism. The topic is ancient, but always relevant. If you don’t have high quality leisure activities in your life, you will fill the time with passive consumption, such as Netflix. Remember, these technologies are carefully designed to fill every spare minute of your day.

To take back your time and develop high quality leisure pursuits, get in touch with activities that satisfy you. Leisure can be fixing stuff around your house, even if it would be faster to call a handy professional. Leisure can be social too, such as pick up sports or board games. And digital tools such as Meetup.com can help you find the venue for your favorite leisure activity.

Remember to make a plan for you leisure to keep you on track. Low quality activities, such as cruising facebook, will creep into more of your life unless you have a schedule. Try a two-pronged approach of scheduling a regular commitment to your high quality leisure while also blocking some time for low quality activities. For example, you go to dance classes every weeknight, but you also slot time for watching your favorite TV series on Sunday nights.

For more, check out Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.