On Digital Minimalism
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Tue Apr 11 23:45:48 EDT 2023

Sometime in February this year I picked up Cal
Newport's "Digital Minimalism" and decided I'd
give a "digital detox" a try. The phlog posts
definitely suffered, but it was a worthwhile
experience.

For most of March I tried to limit my outside of
work screen time. I put my phone on my dresser
instead of my bedstand. I put my laptop in my
office instead of the bedroom. I tried hard to
avoid the urge to surf the web or check the
news at the first sign of a minute lull.

And I felt better for it. Or at least I think
I did.

In a way, I'd been prepping for it inadvertently
for a while. So much of the book focuses on
social media, which I've been off for years.
The hard bit for me was news, blogs, YouTube,
etc. I'm hooked on learning new things, and
the internet is the fastest way to be exposed
to the craziest shit (for better or worse).

A highlight was rediscovering my love for
reading. I read more books in the past two
months than the past three years. Fiction,
non fiction, sci-fi, you name it. This sounds
like a brag, but it was probably only 6 books,
which really just goes to show how little I'd
been reading before.

As of today, I'd say my detox is on hold.
I got distracted from it, falling back into
old habits without taking the time to evaluate
the individual technologies I want to keep
in my life. It was hard not to, with work
requiring me to be on-call. I hope to revisit
it again soon.

All in all, I'd recommend the book (it's a quick
read!) and trying some form of the recommended
experience. For a blip, I found the time to
reflect on life. I wonder where that time went /s