The 12 Step Digital Detox for 2020
Because no piece of software is more important than your own mind.
Hello fellow human!
What a phenomenal age to live in, the year 2019 — a time when BILLIONS of us are constantly getting more connected. Every. single. moment.
This year is a huge one for me, a lot transformed after constantly traveling to and living in 40+ cities in the US, Europe, and SE Asia. I am grateful to be born in this age where living and working from anywhere is possible, while witnessing our incredible planet. Funnily though, the most common thing I saw in our world is people having a bent neck, constantly looking at our complex universe through these pixels on a tiny rectangular glass. Like me writing this right now and you reading this right now, haha.
I love to create things and express myself, much like all the rest. Though if we are not cautious, it is so easy to get our true self stifled with the negative noise of our empowering connectivity.
I’ll get to the point on why I started writing this — How I manage my digital minimalism. In all these years working in the tech industry, building massive digital products and games — being a part of all these businesses, I have felt an increasing compulsivity and reactivity of my mind when I am idle. I have tried a lot many things to transform this state, and failed and tried more. Though I am fairly confident about my mind’s organization now.
This post is about the ways I digitally cleanse myself and stay in my peak state. You may take things from here and design the best framework for your own self. Please use this to be more productive, more creative — and most of all, be more happier. Because that’s what you truly need to share your mind’s best gifts with us.
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Let’s get started — 12 steps
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Desktop
1. ZERO notification popups
Swipe on the trackpad on the right edge (open notification center), clear all notifications in the notification center. Turn on “Do not disturb”. Also play around with Notification settings and turn off everything that doesn’t truly serve. This way I get rid of all the popups, the jumpy icons, and all those red dots craving for attention. Need to kill that fragmented attention mindset — our best creation comes through that timeless state of the mind.
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2. An ever clean and empty screen.
With this I am able to give 100% attention to the current task and stay on it until it gets completed. No need to keep switching to the fullscreen mode.
For cleaning up —
a. Move all clutter on the desktop to a folder named “_” (underscore). I keep any file in use on the desktop, and move it to the _ folder/trash/email when the work gets done. Most of the things are on cloud anyway.
b. Hide the bottom dock. Right click the dock below and choose “Turn Hiding On”.
c. Hide that bar on the top. Tick the box for menu bar from “General” settings. I don’t even see the clock on my screen by default, so I can create things with no pressure. I practice and remember shortcuts for the most common actions.
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3. An ultra clean Chrome browser
Completely empty tabs with this extension. I also hide all the extension icons in the top bar. This helps my mind stay on the current thought stream, and not get induced by any newer emotion when I open Chrome or a new tab. Also enabled the Do Not Track request in settings.
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4. I ruthlessly use Screen Time
Controls impulsivity — I use screen time to add an extra step to less productive applications. This makes me think for a moment before I start getting engaged with any new piece of information that may waste hours.
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Social Media
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5. Facebook
Unfollowed all pages, exited all groups, deactivated Facebook — Messenger still works on my phone with all contacts intact. Also kept Facebook logged in with an empty new account. If I still compulsively type Facebook on a new tab, I see this empty feed and have to close the tab. Earlier I mindlessly kept scrolling and clicking through, and hours passed creating random continuous emotions that never help. I used to log out, delete the app at times, block things, and tried many other ways, nothing worked permanently.
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6. Twitter
In case I ever need to see a tweet, I installed this chrome extension to hide all the vanity metrics. I also deleted my account to stop engaging more in twitter’s world of fragmented attention. Having no counts for follows, likes, comments and things like those purges the constant evaluation and comparison in my head. Does the screenshot feel a bit relaxing to you?
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7. Instagram
This was the most difficult app to control permanently. Final solution — Unfollowed everyone, removed all my followers, added another (test) account to learn about the latest features + to keep updated on how people are marketing their shops. This way Instagram is more positive and useful for me.
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Popular services
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8. YouTube
Clean homepage, no recommendations, and no comments. When I land on YouTube — I search, or watch something from my subscribed channels. Customised using this extension. I learn a lot with YouTube, though I like to put in an effort of making a conscious choice before I watch another video.
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9. WhatsApp
No sounds, no red dot badges. Notification popups are off, for groups everything is off (check screenshots). Sometimes I turn off everything when I am deeply working. People who know me, call if something is actually urgent.
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10. Google
Disabled saving of location history, web activity, and YouTube history. Also setup options to delete my data every 3 months. Turned Ad personalisation off. All these new settings are on myaccount.google.com. I regularly keep clearing all cookies and history too. All this keeps my mind clear of the tunneling effects of AI driven recommendations across the web.
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Emails & phone
11. Emails
I use the Spark app to combine and use 4 different email accounts. I keep zero unread emails daily. This took some years to master. Also, my company uses Slack channels that makes all email communication ultra minimal. If I get any weird marketing email, I unsubscribe too instead of just deleting.⠀
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12. iPhone home screen
As I develop and design apps, I keep updated with the latest trends — my phone has 300+ apps. I disable almost all notification banners and badge app icons — the goal is to never see an interruption while using my phone. I even wrote this poem once when I got too annoyed with the notification dots. Disabling these things curbs the reactive nature of my mind.
Each minute spent on these tweaks saves me a lot of energy in the long run, and helps my mind create more joy, be ever creative, and stay stress free. It helps me consume information clearly, keep my relationships happier — and the best of all, experience all those beautiful things in our world that some businesses of the Silicon Valley can never put a number on.
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That’s all for now.
Remember that our mind’s natural intelligence is not invented by humans, so it’s far greater than any possible AI. Please take care of it, and nurture it in a way that serves you the most. We desperately need the best gifts you have!
Wishing you the best of health as we enter 2020. Thank you for reading.
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