{"id":688,"date":"2019-03-17T17:22:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-17T17:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/?p=688"},"modified":"2019-03-17T17:22:20","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T17:22:20","slug":"digital-minimalism-book-summary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/17\/digital-minimalism-book-summary\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Minimalism (Book Summary)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"nolwrap\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B07DBRBP7G\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport (opens in a new tab)\">Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Situation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Tech companies encourage behavioral addition by tapping\ninto intermittent positive reinforcement and the drive for social approval.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Complication<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The urge to check [social media has become] a\nnervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to\nsupport the presence necessary for an intentional life.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Resolution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Embrace digital minimalism: A philosophy of\ntechnology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of\ncarefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you\nvalue, and then happily miss out on everything else.<\/li><li>Small changes are not enough to solve our big\nissues with new technologies. <\/li><li>Give your brain the regular doses of quiet it\nrequires to support a monumental life.<\/li><li>The best way to fight the tyranny of the digital\nin your life is to embrace a philosophy of [intentional] technology use based\nin your deeply held values.&nbsp; Ask 3\nquestions:<ul><li>Does this technology directly support something\nI deeply value?<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Is this technology the best way to support this\nvalue?<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>How (and when) am I going to use this technology\ngoing forward to maximize its value and minimize its harms?<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Digital declutter<ul><li>Step away from optional online activities for thirty\ndays and instead explore and rediscover high-quality activities and behaviors\nthat you find satisfying &amp; meaningful.<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Next, reintroduce optional technologies into\nyour life, starting from a blank slate. For each technology you reintroduce,\ndetermine what value it serves in your life and how specifically you will use\nit so as to maximize this value.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Solitude<ul><li>Solitude is about what\u2019s happening in your brain,\nnot the environment around you; it is a subjective state in which your mind is\nfree from input from other minds.<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Solitude requires you to move past reacting to\ninformation created by other people and focus instead on your own thoughts and\nexperiences \u2014 wherever you happen to be.<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>When you avoid solitude, you miss out on the\npositive things it brings you: the ability to clarify hard problems, to\nregulate your emotions, to build moral courage, and to strengthen relationships<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>What Thoreau sought in his experiment at Walden\nwas the ability to move back and forth between a state of solitude and a state\nof connection.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Digital Minimalist Practices<ul><li>Disable notifications (or simply use Do Not Disturb\nmode by default with exceptions for critical people in your life)<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Remove social media apps from your phone (you\ncan still access through your computer browser). Better do not sign up in the\nfirst place.<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Leave your phone at home (or at least in your\nglove compartment)<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Take long walks by yourself without your phone<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Write letters to yourself (journaling, esp. when\nencountering a complicated decision, demanding circumstances, a hard emotion,\nor a surge of inspiration<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Don\u2019t click \u201cLike\u201d \u2013 ever! Also, stop leaving\ncomments on social media posts. Instead engage in conversation-centric\ncommunication.<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Schedule specific times for texting.<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Hold conversation office hours by putting aside time\non set days during which you\u2019re always available for conversation (for example,\nduring your commute or regular coffee time).<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Embace slow media: Consume news &amp;\ninformation only from high-quality sources\/writers, actively seeking out the\nbest arguments against your preferred position. Moreover, ritualize your\nconsumption at specific locations &amp; times.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Reclaim high-quality leisure. <ul><li>Prioritize [physically and\/or intellectually] demanding\nactivity over passive consumption<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Use skills to produce valuable things in the\nphysical world (ex: fix or build something every week)<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Seek activities that require real-world,\nstructured social interactions (ex: join a group)<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Schedule in advance the time you spend on low-quality\nleisure<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Follow seasonal and weekly leisure plans. Seasonal\n(Jan 1; May 1, Sept 1) plans include a small number of objectives and habits\nyou intend to honor. At the beginning of each week, put aside time to figure\nout what actions you can do during the week to make progress on these\nobjectives, and then, crucially, schedule exactly when you\u2019ll do these things.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport Situation Tech companies encourage behavioral addition by tapping into intermittent positive reinforcement and the drive for social approval. Complication The urge to check [social media has become] a nervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to support the presence necessary for an intentional life. Resolution Embrace digital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sellingsherpa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Digital-Minimalism.png?fit=1625%2C478&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9j2qV-b6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":690,"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions\/690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sellingsherpa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}