Digital Minimalism: Build A Distraction-Free Life with Intentional Tech Use

1. Welcome!: You know, the average person spends almost 7 hours a day on the Internet. And between social media, online shopping, and entertainment, it can be overwhelming, but it is still possible to live peacefully in this digital world. Hi. I'm Reina, and I'm a creative entrepreneur. I've built several businesses and essentially my entire life around the Internet and tech. So I've figured out a trick or two when it comes to mindfulness and digital minimalism. And this course will help you come up with a plan to manage your digital life and find that balance. So let's get started on creating a more peaceful digital environment together. 2. What is Digital Minimalism?: 's begin by defining digital minimalism, which you've probably already guessed because you're so smart by the term digital minimalism. But I want to be clear that digital minimalism is intentionally using tech to enhance your life, not overwhelm it. Because remember, you own your devices. Your devices don't own you, right? So this could include using your devices less. But the goal here is to live in harmony with our devices like our computers and our phones, because we do live in a digital age. So Digital minimalism can help you cut back on your phone addiction, and if that is something that you are struggling with, we are going to address it later on in the course by making your phone just a little bit less distracting, a little less appealing, if you know what I mean. And digital minimalism can help you to attain better focus, and it can increase your free time. Oh. Who doesn't want that? By replacing mindless scrolling with intentional activities. And this is something that can give you a greater purpose, and maybe you can do some activities that align with your life goals a little bit. Maybe maybe just a little bit of that. Anyway, hopefully we will put you on the path to achieve this with this course by the end of this course. 3. Strategies for Success + Your Objective: We'll cover a couple of different methods and strategies to achieve this digital minimalist life over the course of this course. For example, you can go extreme like a monk, or you can go a little bit more chill. The two methods that we're going to be using to achieve this are deep clean mode, which is removing all non essential digital tools. And Mfel mode, which is using your digital tools, but with intention and strict rules. Now, both of these can be tailored to your personal preferences, your lifestyles, your interests. And you can choose one over the other, or you can create a combo of both, depending on the areas that you're struggling with or what you would like to achieve. For example, you could do deep clean mode for your social media platforms, and you can do mindful mode for your e mail consumption. It really depends on what your goals are. And it's important for you to learn both of these because that's going to help you determine which one to use. And we'll dive deep into each one so that you choose the right one. And the goal for this course is to create a digital minimalism plan that works for you. And it is going to be a practical application of all the things we learn in this course. Now, let's hop over to the next lesson and simplify your digital clutter. 4. Audit What's Weighing You Down: Do you figure out what is weighing you down in this digital world? Start off by creating a list. Review all of your social media profiles, your notifications, e mails, apps, services, anything that is overwhelming you in your digital life. And you can choose one or all of these things. Now, if this sentence alone overwhelms you, stop, Don't worry. Take a step back and create categories for all of these things and work in each of these categories. You can have a category for social media, have a category for eps, have a category for e mails. Anything that is overwhelming you. By compartmentalizing it and putting it into different categories, this is going to make it a little bit less overwhelming, hopefully. Now, we often accumulate these things over time. I want you to remember that because just like that, over time, we can eliminate these things from our life. This is a process that can take a long time if you need it to. So don't worry. I will still be here. This course will still be here if you need it. Just take it one step at a time. After you've reviewed all of your digital tools and things, then you might want to consider doing an audit. Now, a lot of Apple products have this feature built in called screen time that will monitor your usage of digital apps and your devices. If you don't have a Apple device, then that's okay. We won't judge you, but there are other apps and services that also offer this feature. And you can get as detailed as you want. And you can also self monitor if you feel that you can do that for yourself. You can do that with a spreadsheet or a notepad. I would like for you to track your usage for one week. And I also want you to include how you feel after every usage. If you skip a couple of them, it's okay. But it really is important for you to recognize why you feel the way you do after you use these apps and services. And the reason is because this is going to serve as a strong motivator when it comes to the next stage, and you have to start eliminating these things. I want you to remember that it's not possible to use all of your digital tools effectively at the same time. Having fewer e mails, fewer apps, fewer devices means that you're using each one more intentionally. That's the goal here. Let's go into deep clean mode. 5. Deep Clean Mode: Have now entered deep clean mode. This is the method in which all non essential digital elements are eliminated. We'll start off with an app audit and delete all apps that are not necessary to your daily tasks or overall well being. It might be a little tough to decide what to delete once you start the process. So here are a few things to consider. Keep only apps that serve a clear and necessary purpose. That could be, for example, an e mail app calendar and banking, for example. Look at the last time you used an app. Remember that we're supposed to be tracking our screen time here. So pick a time could be three months, six months. And if you haven't used that app or service in that time, then delete it. And it's probably a safe bet that if you haven't used it during that time, that you probably won't use it in the next few months. Remove all apps that don't align with your personal or professional goals. If you want to spend more time chatting with co workers, then maybe keep your work e mail, or if you want to spend more time learning, then keep the apps that help you do that. Now we're going to jump into a few different categories to give you an idea and help you along in this process. The first one being e mails. Unsubscribe from all marketing or promotional e mails, set up filters in your e mail so that you only see the important stuff. And lastly, if possible, limit checking your e mail to twice per week. Now, again, I said, if possible, if your job depends on you checking your e mail, then Don't get fired. Next is notifications. You are going to turn off all notifications that pop up or beep, or boop, or whatever. You are only going to allow badges on app icons so that you don't miss out on important stuff, but you aren't getting constantly distracted or interrupted involuntarily. Next up is social media. You're going to delete all social media apps from your phone. Now, you don't necessarily have to delete your profiles if you still want to be using these platforms, and if so, then limit your usage to logging in on your desktop computer through a browser. This is going to make it a little bit less appealing, and limit your use of these platforms to specific times during the day. Lastly, let's tackle your digital files, sort through and eliminate any digital files that you deem necessary to delete. So these could be duplicates, You might not need duplicates and any unnecessary documents. Maybe there are some files that are no longer relevant, and they are just taking up space on your devices. So get rid of those. Now that we've gone through this deep clean mode and eliminated some of these absent services, let's talk a little bit about your usage when you're in this deep clean mode. Limit screen time to essential tasks only. And create phone free zones and times. For example, it could be while you're eating, maybe right before bedtime or maybe even right after you wake up first thing in the morning. All right. So that is deep clean mode. Now we're going to take a step back, get a little chill, and we're going to hop over to mindful mode. 6. Mindful Mode: 's time to take it a step back. We're going to chill. We're diving into mindful mode. And this involves keeping our digital elements, but using them intentionally, allowing flexibility and keeping that focus and purpose. Let's begin with the app audit just like we did before. You're going to identify any apps that are unnecessary. An easy way to do this is by looking at any unused apps. Maybe it's something that you haven't used in a while or maybe you haven't used at all. Get rid of it. And feel free to keep any app that you think adds value to your life. So this could be entertainment apps. But keep in mind that we are going to add boundaries to those later. Remove any apps from your home screen. Some devices will allow you to remove apps from your home screen, but still have them installed on your phone. And this is so helpful because You will only use these apps when you actually want to or need to as opposed to using them just because you see them there on your home screen. So now that you've eliminated some of those apps from your devices, let's dive into some of the same categories that we did in the previous lesson, starting off with e mails and notifications. Firstly, unsubscribe from any unnecessary e mails. Again, these could be marketing or promotional e mails. And feel free to do this as they come along into your inbox, whenever you see something that you no longer need or want unsubscribe. Try to set specific times for checking your e mails. So you don't have to go as extreme like in the deep clean mode, where it was once or twice a week. But this time, you can choose specific times that you're going to check your e mail every day. As for notifications, make sure that you go through all of your notifications and remove as many of them as possible. Again, you don't want to get distracted involuntarily, and you don't want any unwanted interruptions. But With this mode, you can just keep a healthy mix. Next, social media, you don't have to delete all of your social media apps if you don't feel like you have to or want to, but it does help to limit your social media app usage to certain times a day. So just decide when you would like to check your social media throughout your day in out with your friends online. Use app timers to make sure that you don't exceed that usage. Something else that helps is logging out of addicting sites so that you create a little bit of friction whenever you want to use them. And then you have to log back in every time that you want to hop on. And lastly, use browser blockers that will prevent you from visiting these websites at all for certain chunks of time. This will help you to get used to not having them around so that you don't resort to using them when you are bored or trying to avoid doing something else that you need to do. And there's a number of apps that you can use for this personally. I use one called self control, but there's a bunch of these out there, and I'm not endorsing anyone in particular. Now, for your digital files, regularly organize and declutter your digital files so that they don't accumulate over time. And use any digital tools intentionally so that they are productive and not distracting. So what does device usage look like in mindful mode? Establish phone free times and zones around your home. That way, you're only using them at specific times or in specific areas around the house. Reduce screen time by replacing that time with meaningful offline activities. Some ideas are reading a book, going for a walk, maybe partaking in a hobby. Set up specific limits. Like watching one episode of a show instead of binge watching an entire season in one afternoon. And if you're watching a video or reading something online, consider taking notes. That way you can improve your comprehension of it and slow down your consumption of it. The faster you consume, the more you can consume in a short period of time. So now that you understand deep clean mode and mindful mode, let's talk a little bit about how you can keep all of this up. In the next lesson. 7. Maintaining Your Digital Minimalism: Before diving further into creating your digital minimalism plan, let's cover a little bit of the ways that you can maintain it because this is going to influence the way that you execute. Now, dealing with Pomo or the fear of missing out is a very real thing. And you can have feelings of anxiety or pomo when you are deleting these social media apps or turning off notifications on your phone. Now, when you start creating your plan, you are going to spend some time crafting your goals. So when these feelings come up, consider your goals because they are your identity. They are going to give you strength in this decision that you've made to not participate on these websites or these services. And as for your loved ones, There was a time in history when we did not get notifications or we did not hear from people right away, and people didn't lose friends. So keep that in mind. Also, let your friends and your family members know that you've set up some boundaries. That way, they might even support you, and they'll understand to not take it personal. You don't get back to them right away. So make sure that you are set on your goals and that they reflect your values, your professional goals, and all of that will help with the guilt. Staying on track involves setting up tech free times and zones, like we've talked about previously. This can be no phones at dinner or no laptops in the reading nook. Make routines that align with your goals. And this can be related to decreasing your device usage, like, for example, using YouTube for only 1 hour after lunch every day. Replace your usage with something else. This can be like knitting for an hour every day or reading a book a week or a book a month. Having these routines will create a whole new lifestyle. So you won't want to fall back to those digital distractions, and you'd much rather reinforce those hobbies or those outdoor activities. Tools and apps to help you along in your journey. There are loads of blockers for apps and websites. Apple even has this screen time feature that I mentioned before that helps you to limit the amount of time that you use things. I'm not going to list all of the apps and services that are out there because it'll be hard to update this course and keep it fresh. Feel free to reach out to me if you want to know what I'm using at any given time. But the goal here isn't to force brute your way into using these devices less, but rather to realize why you are over using these devices and why you are cluttering your digital spaces. Why do you mindlessly scroll? Why do you distract yourself online instead of doing work tasks? Why do you feel overwhelmed by e mails? Ask yourself these questions before blocking because these are underlying reasons that need to be addressed. These are the reasons and the core for why you are facing these digital challenges and why you are taking this course. Now for handling setbacks, setbacks will happen. You'll skip a day, you'll lose focus, you'll download an app again, you'll subscribe to a newsletter again. It'll happen. But How do you deal with that? Reassess your goals whenever you run into these challenges again. Maybe they've changed, or maybe you need a reminder. Look at the routines you've created after completing this course. Is it possible that they need to be adjusted? Be flexible and willing to make adjustments to deal with these setbacks? In order to keep up with everything that you've learned in this lesson, make sure to do periodic evaluations, and that means doing digital cleanups. Taking a look at newly downloaded apps or services that you've subscribed to, maybe looking at recently downloaded files. Make sure to do these routine checkups to maintain a minimal digital presence. 8. Designing Your Digital Minimalism Plan: My laptop right here, and we are going to work on creating your digital minimalism plan together. Goals. Define your primary goal for adopting digital minimalism. The important question to ask yourself is why did you take this course? What do you think your digital devices are keeping you from achieving? Some examples of actionable and clear goals are improving my performance at school, spending less time on social media, and using that time to study. Spend more quality time with family that doesn't involve screens and build a successful online business by limiting digital distractions. Write a few of these down in your goals section. And while doing this, keep in mind your personal values, the kind of person you want to be, and any professional goals you have approach, deep clean or mindful mode. So we've already discussed these, and when you're choosing which mode you'd like to use, remember that this can always change. This is very modular, and it's very much tailored to you. And you can choose to do deep clean now, and maybe a few months down the line or next year, you decide you want to change to mindful mode. That's totally fine, whatever you feel most comfortable with. And like I mentioned earlier in the course, you can also choose to do both. You can do a combo and choose one for a specific aspect like social media, and the other for e mails or notifications. And for the purpose of this course assignment, fill in one or both of the bubbles. All right, actions, List actions to minimize digital clutter. Keep this as simple as possible with just a few bullet points that will serve as reminders for you. Some things that you might want to put are delete apps that don't align with goals, unsubscribe from shopping e mails, turn off notifications on all devices, and delete all social media from my phone. Again, these are just examples. Do what works best for you and what aligns with your personal goals and the method that you decided to approach your digital minimalism with routines. So these are routines you'll set up to stay on track. And here are some examples of that. So for daily routines, you might put stuff like have phone free morning routine. Take breaks with offline activities like knitting. Turn off screens 1 hour before bed. For weekly routines, you might do something like spend 30 minutes every Friday organizing and decluttering digital files. Check digital usage and make goals for following week. And for monthly routines, do a digital detox every first weekend of the month, adjust digital minimalism plan based on progress, and device maintenance, doing update on software, backing up important files, or clearing that cache. Hopefully, this gives you some inspiration or some ideas of how to fill out your own plan. Review. How frequently will you review and adjust your plan? Accountability is crucial to staying on track. So you might want to review where you're at regularly. Let's put I'm going to review my progress every two weeks. Metrics. How do you measure your success? Your measurements should be clear and not general. So a bad example is spend less time looking at social media. And a good example is limit social media to 30 minutes a day. So some more good examples are dedicate at least 1 hour to knitting every day. I don't know why I'm using knitting as an example. It is just what it's become. I don't even know how to knit, but Another example is launch a new product for businesses every two weeks. Spend at least an hour a day with family without screens. Again, you can write as little or as much as you can fit into this worksheet. This is base level to give you an idea and to inspire you and to help you start on your digital minimalism journey. I like to keep things simple by trying to limit to maybe three things in each section. Otherwise, it can be tough to track and follow, and then that can end up being demotivating in itself. So we don't want that. When you're writing your plan, try to be honest and specific. Take your time. So I know that this lesson and this course is short, but you can take your time so you can pause and come back to this course when you've thought about this and you've reflected. And I really want you to focus on your why. The questions that I asked earlier on. When you're done filling out your plan, share it with me, and consider this your accountability. By sharing it, you've committed to taking the steps you need to take. 9. Wrapping Up Your Digital Minimalism Journey: That's a wrap on your digital minimalism journey, or shall I say the beginning. I hope that you're feeling less overwhelmed and more in control because you are on your way to having less distractions and more meaningful memories in your life, which is amazing. Remember that digital minimalism isn't about deprivation. It's about gaining freedom to do the things that truly matter the most to you. Remember to take small steps because You've made your plan, and now you're going to implement the things that you learn. This is a new lifestyle. This is a process. Some key takeaways from this course that you might want to remember is prioritize and eliminate. Focus on what's essential and aligns with your goals. Set boundaries and routines. Create specific times and zones for digital use. Do regular reviews and make adjustments. Make sure your new digital habits still align with your goals. And that's it. You're now living a more fulfilling and intentional life. Remember that the benefits of this outweigh the short term rewards that you might get by checking your phone every minute. Hopefully, you've gotten a positive takeaway from this course because completing this course is a win, and you know what? You should go c, celebrate finishing this course without screens preferably.