A Fewer Better Guide to Digital Minimalism
Sunday Edition: How we can experiment to create simpler solutions
“Digital minimalism is a way to engage with consumer technology that prioritizes focused, intentional use of technology to limit distraction.” – Tech Target
I could begin this guide by quoting the massive amounts of research stating how unhealthy addictive use of digital technologies are, especially smartphones, but then we already know and feel that every single day.
Instead, I’ll be focusing on how to make a change. Since I’m an early adopter and former innovator of digital technologies, I thought I could share more in detail how I have designed my life balancing sunlight and screen light.
Since the early 90s, I’ve always bought the latest technologies with the purpose of creating more freedom in life and work. I was first when the MacBook came out as well as the iPhone, iPad, and the Apple Watch. I even had the Newton, the early consumer pilot to the iPad and iPhone.
I was also very early to store all my information (music, movies, books, documents, photos et cetera) digitally, in the cloud. This lead to a dematerialization of the previous storage formats (CDs, DVDs, physical books, paper photos et cetera) and my introduction to minimalism.
Finally, in the early 10s, I digitized transport and housing by only using car sharing for local transport (which I’ve today shifted away from in favor of walking and public transport), and AirBnB for housing. I also digitized banking, networking, and all things traveling, to work from anywhere.
Then around the time of my TEDx talk in 2016, I began to realize how dependent I had become on all my digital devices and accounts. I couldn’t do anything without them. The freedom I had been seeking was now becoming a prison, and I decided to explore digital minimalism (then not yet a term).
I began scaling back my digital footprint to the absolute necessary, eventually arriving at my current setup which is working very well, wherever I am in the world. Now, this might not work for everyone, of course, as we do have different jobs and lives, but hopefully it can be of inspiration and guidance.
I realized that the iPhone had become too addictive, that I had fallen into the common trap of unconsciously checking my phone for notifications and messages, even if there weren’t any, way to often, way to uncontrolled. And thus, wasting time, attention, and creative energy on nothing really.
So I took a step back, asking myself: what do I really need and what do I value in life? Well, I need to read, write, and communicate but I also value time alone for presence, creativity, discovery, and deep work. And since I often travel, I need devices that are simple and easy to charge and carry around.
And instead of focusing on all the unlimited opportunities with digital technologies we are sold daily, by influencers, and tech companies, I focused on what important problems that I needed to solve: why, when, and how.
This lead me to the following concept which I’ve now been using very successfully and satisfactory for the past year: