My Digital Decluttering: 5 Early Impacts After 30 Days
It’s been one full month already since I started my digital decluttering process. To make a long story short, I began by deleting social media apps from my phone (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Etc.) and only kept the apps that I had to use daily like Email and iMessage. Through this process, I experienced many benefits that might seem basic at first, but these changes are impacting the way I feel about life, and I wanted to share 5 of them with you today:
I am now able to have a full conversation and be more in the moment with the people I’m interacting with (vs. having a device on the table that could distract me at any time)
I am being more intentional in everything I do: whether it’s making a photograph or just checking the status of things on my home computer (no more endless scrolling just for the sake of it) I am back to having a purpose when using digital tech versus having digital tech controlling my time spent with it.
I found myself asking the following question more when making a decision about technology, commitments, and even some relationships: “Is this going to add value to my life (and/or can I give value back to others by doing this)”
I reintroduced analog technologies in my life and it changed the way I consume media. I now favor vinyl records to discover a whole album vs streaming 40M songs, I read more books and magazine (my girlfriend just bought me a subscription to National Geographic) and this has given my creativity a boost, especially for my photography.
I now have more time to think. That simple. Because there are fewer distractions and interruptions in the flow of my day, I often find myself sitting and reflecting on many aspects of my life that had become part of a routine or something I would think about “When I have time”.
These are just some of the early impacts I’m experiencing after 4 weeks of digital decluttering. Some more interesting findings should be made along the way and I will continue to document this journey towards living a more meaningful life here. I hope that I’ll be able to provide value and context to any other person interested in the process and the outcomes.
So, you should probably stop looking at your phone, relax, enjoy a good cup of coffee and start thinking about how to apply a more intentional living approach to your life ;-)
