30-Day Digital Declutter
An experiment, trying to find out what's really important and eliminate what's unnecessary in our lives together!
This sharing was inspired by my head of the engineering department. His challenge was named as Chinese New Year Transformer Plan which focuses on our body weight and body fat target.
Prologue
What I am sharing here basically are the ideas of «Digital Minimalism» from Cal Newport, and the experiment from ReadingOutPost with some tools that I apply in my daily life. Do check out their essays and books as they write and convey the message way better than me.
Motivation for This Sharing
Currently, it is the last 30 days of December, and also the end of the year 2024. I am eager to share this as I believe most of us can achieve a better life with the inspiring concept that I grasp from these authors. It will definitely lead to a great start in 2025.
Key Concept:
"We should use technology intentionally to serve our values and improve our lives,
not for its own sake or as a default distraction" - Cal Newport
In my old belief, I used to think that this guy was the one who was living in the forest. Well, now I am becoming the one who lives in the forest too.
Share a picture from one of my recently read books below:
«Out of The Maze», the sequel of «Who Moved My Cheese» by Dr Spencer Johnson.
---Alright, let's get into the topic today, sharing of tools, and the exciting experiment--
Tools
1st: Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls
- Used as a tool to monitor our digital behaviour.
As you can see, it can clearly show the duration and what have you been using throughout the day or further look into last week/month passed history.
In the middle of the picture is an example of the apps. It was my usage of my phone yesterday. Looks nice right? but remember, that's the thing that I intentionally want to show! “Seeing is not believing”, what’s the reality you guys can have a guess, but only I, myself know it well.
Another function which currently I have no chance to use, parental monitoring. Moms and dads here can try it out and share it with me at the end of the experiment. I am really curious will it be helpful to build a good relationship with your child?
The most important function is named focus mode which disables certain apps when you turn the mode on (One step further to entering your default mode and ensuring your deep work session). It can combine with the app time limit, usually, I will set Instagram as 0 minutes (which basically blocks it the whole day). Make me a few more steps further to enter it.
2nd: Daily Timeblock Planner
The second tool is the daily time block planner which trying to protect your attention and avoid context switching. Alternatives are Toggl, calendar and etc. (or even hybrid). As I am the one who lives in the forest, I will follow with the paper one as the main planner.
The figure shown is my daily time block planner together with the bullet journal. (An interesting tool that I think most of us should try out, consists of affirmation, long-term planning, gratitude, and year of the glace, weekly planner, project management, etc.). Customize your own style as needed, with no limits, just about your IMAGINATION.
DW: Deep work hours counted
CC: Cold call, which is the number of calls that break your session.
Top left: Shut down ritual, close it out at the end of the day.
I use different colours to separate the tasks and sessions. Blue colours are the leisure activities (my preference)
Do record some pop-out ideas inside the right-hand side, which is the weekly planner.
*At the end of the day, the ratio, Deep Work: Shallow Work really matters, this is an objective way to observe your usage of time.
Afterword
“There is no time management, there is only personal management” «Procrastinate on Purpose»
Keep in mind that we humans are emotional and our daily time cannot be controlled by us. It is all about personal management and your habits(build a system). Find what’s really important in our lives this December!
Do check out those links below. You guys can download the 3. one and join the experiment.
References:
1. https://readingoutpost.com/digital-minimalism/
2. https://www.timeblockplanner.com
3. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xX19SqqX-zyMITF-ky_KE1YbDzkM25k-/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115224338743541363579&rtpof=true&sd=true
(Please subscribe to the first reference to get the more beautiful template which in Chinese)
4. https://readingoutpost.com/the-bullet-journal-method/