Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

By Cal Newport

I have to say that the author, Cal Newport, is one of my favourites because he always makes so much sense.

I listened to the audio version of his book, Digital Minimalism, and found so much useable information that I used immediately to create a more distraction-free life for myself.

I’m not even a heavy user of phones and apps, or at least I didn’t think so until I read this book.

In one study that was done of people’s mobile phone habits, it was discovered that on average, people used their phones 4 hours a day. It was judged using an app that counted how long the phone’s screen was in use.

I was surprised that people use their phones so much. But the study also showed that some use their phones up to 9 hours a day. Now THAT is an addiction.

Years ago, we used our phones more because computers were mostly desktop varieties and even laptops were too heavy and bulky to carry around. But now laptops are lighter and we have tablet computers too so we don’t need to do everything on our phones anymore. Yet some people do.

Doing simple things like deleting apps and removing email from our phones frees up time considerably. I had four screens of apps on my phone and after reading this book I deleted many and now I only have 2 ½ screens of apps, but it’s still too many and I’m going to reduce them again, although some of them are not removable.

The high usage of mobile phones deprives people of solitude, of the ability to see what’s going on around them, of being quiet in their own thoughts. This is called solitude deprivation and is one of the causes of depression.

We all need time without 3rd party input every day which means spending time with no phone, no reading, no TV, no talking. Just spending a small amount of time every day, sitting quietly and meditatively, can have a huge positive impact on our mood, and it gives us time to think more about our life and the decisions we make.

It’s no coincidence that the people who use social media the most are the ones who suffer the most with depression and anxiety. They don’t realise that all the posts they read are fake and not a true representation of people’s lives. No one posts about yelling at their kids, but they do upload many pictures of happy, smiling families.

Social media sites make money from eyes on pages so they do everything they can to keep you focused and clicking and to keep you on their sites as long as possible so that they can make more money.

When you’re on a social media site remember, “Don’t Click Like.” These companies use your ‘likes’ to help marketers target you more. Social media isn’t social. It’s just marketing. Don’t fall for it.

No one uses social media to keep in touch with family and friends, no matter how much they say they do.

Social media isolates us because we send likes and comments and posts instead of physical social interaction.

Social media is so negative. The less you use it, the happier you’ll be and you can claim back hours of your life, and happiness, every day.

If you MUST use social media, only do so on your computer NOT on your phone.

You can improve your life if you do the following things:

Delete apps
Un-join
Un-follow
Don’t click like
Don’t comment

I did all of the above things (and I’m not even a big user, I don’t even have email on my phone) and it made a HUGE difference. Now when I look at social media, there’s not much for me to scroll through so I’m in and out of there quickly which has improved my life, lessened my stress and I’m not missing anything. In fact, it improves everything.

I’d easily say that reading this book (or listening to it like I did) will open your eyes to how always being online is ruining your life, even though you may currently believe it’s improving it.

See for yourself by clicking the link below and downloading a free sample.

Or buy a whole copy.

You probably have no idea how your phone is taking over you life. But you will once you read this book and find out the difference it can make, not just to your digital life, but to every part of your life that it invades.

You can read more about Digital Minimalism at Amazon.com

Digital Minimalism

This review was written on 3rd August 2022

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