Cal Newport may or may not have coined the phrase and stated massive awareness of digital minimalism. Digital minimalism is reducing your digital footprint by eliminating apps and abandoning your old unintentional habits of mindlessly scrolling. Then creating intentional time to spend on the remaining apps. This includes specific times and purposes.
Reducing Your Digital Footprint
Reducing the applications you use and that you keep on your phone. Newport suggests deleting everything and slowly working on the apps that you need. There’s no way I could do that again. I have done that with new phones and it’s a little tricky but definitely doable. It’s definitely the best way to get all the wasted space off your phone! Most apps probably got installed 2-3 years ago and used once, or your friend told you to check it out and you never really used it after “checking it out”.
A different approach is to go through your screen time report (iPhone) and see what apps you are using frequently versus the ones that are not even on the report. Then take some time to look at the frequently used apps and learn how to be intentional when using them. Then you can delete, or renegotiate the use. Set time limits, or instead of accessing a specific website or app via your phone, wait to access it at home on a computer. The idea is to eliminate apps/websites and reduce your digital footprint.
Intentionality
Pick an app that you can not live without. Pick a time to use it. Define exactly what you use it for and for how long. That’s how you can be intentional with your time.
For example, TikTok. Let’s say you’re used to getting on there and just scrolling away liking and swiping. Before you know it it’s been 40 minutes. If you choose to be intentional with the time you will use a framework like this:
Pick a specific time and duration to use TikTok (10 minutes?)
Define a specific use, not just mindlessly scrolling (finding a recipe or learning)
Pro tip: iPhones (not sure about other phones) allow you to set time limits on apps.
Using this framework with apps you use will help you be intentional with the time you spend on them.
Why Digital Minimalism
Digital minimalism is a process to help clean up your online and digital presence. The method includes a purge of useless or time-wasting apps. Many apps on your phone or in your bombardment of emails are from years ago that you may have only used once, for college, or a free trial. Free up some space, and then hone in on the important ones.