In a distracted world, our attention is controlled by the apps we choose to download and the only way we can take charge of our attention (spans) is through digital minimalism.
Many of us have too many apps on our phones
- How many digital tools do you use? By digital tools, I don’t mean the basic ones such as email. I don’t mean the social media apps either (let’s talk about it on another day). But the other tools that are necessary for various tasks that you do. It could be a cloud storage platform like Dropbox or a simple note-taking app like Google Keep or any simple to-do list that you might be using. Did you ever take a stock of all such apps that you are using? I did, recently, and the list turned out to be fairly long. I wondered – “why do I have so many apps on my phone?”. And that’s when I thought about digital minimalism.
- Minimalism, as a philosophy, is yet to become mainstream, although it did get some limelight in recent times due to books like The Life-Changing Art of Tidying Up, Essentialism. But digital minimalism is yet to catch up. Cal Newport, who wrote Deep Work, recently came up with a book titled Digital Minimalism. I am yet to read it – the reviews seem to be good.
- With every app just a button away (or say, a thumbprint away), it is so easy to download an app, play around with it for a while and integrate it into our daily lives, if there is some utility or entertainment value. Today we have apps for productivity, health, hobbies, communication, utilities… you name it. And yet, we rarely do a periodic audit of how well those tools are adding value to our life, on a continual basis.
My tryst with digital minimalism through app clean-up exercise
- I recently did an audit of all the apps I use. I started using many apps/tools since last year. When I reviewed them, I realized that I can do away with at least 30% of the apps. I downloaded them more out of curiosity to try them out than to actually use them in an integrated manner for any tasks.
- The apps I use on my phone can be categorized into:
- Social media
- Photography
- Payments
- Food
- Cloud Storage
- Note-taking tools
- Apps for reading like Medium
- I realized that for each of the above categories, I had about 3-4 apps that I was either testing out or not frequently using. Not that it was confusing for me, but just that, my work-flow (or consumption) was dispersed across multiple tools. I decided to declutter a bit and I uninstalled all the apps, which I did not use in the last 6 months.
Minimalism is about minimizing friction
- I believe that every digital tool needs to be effective for the core function it has been designed for. So while many apps try to do many things, I usually prefer the ones that have singular utility.
- I use many apps related to reading and writing. That is because I think that creative processes need the intervention of more than one tool. I see it no different from what a Chef does on a kitchen table.
- A Chef doesn’t use a single kitchen tool. There is always a set of tools, for different purposes, that are deployed as part of the cooking process.
- I view creativity along similar lines. A writer will need multiple tools that will aid the writing process, by removing the friction points. But as long as we are aware of where each tool is coming in, doing its job and adding a value to the creative process, I think it is fine to have as many tools as your process needs.
- Minimalism is not about having less. Minimalism is about having just the right number of things, that minimize the friction.
Deflect SNTS to avoid hoarding
Hoarding – that’s what many of us do. We hoard things because of the SNTS – Shiny New Toy Syndrome. Every app maker is investing in thousands of dollars to seduce us and make us download that app, no matter how useful or useless it is, in the larger scheme of things. So what can we do to not fall for SNTS?
- Concretize your stack – Define, in concrete terms, what exactly is your stack. What all do you do? Read? Write? Share? Create? Photograph? Cook? Unless you can distill your process into 3-4 fundamental steps, you cannot create your own technology stack that fits perfectly with your needs. Pay attention to how different apps make up a certain workflow to complete a particular task.
- For example: If we need to send a PDF document to someone very quickly, we need two apps – a cloud storage app which has the source document and also an email app.
- Do a periodic review – List out all the tools you use and see how they integrate into a workflow (Delete anything unused over the past few months, especially if it doesn’t fit into any task workflow).
- Ask yourself before downloading – Where does this new tool fit and how it will add value? What exactly particular friction this app will remove?
- Forecast the usage – There will always be some apps and tools that you use once in 6 months. Before downloading, try to guesstimate if you will be using it very frequently. If not, consider postponing the download.
Practice Digital Minimalism to get more control – away from device
- Practicing digital minimalism has many benefits such as having fewer distractions from the real world, less tracking (and risks) of our data, and focused engagement with only a limited (quality) set of tools.
- Developing an understanding of various use cases and digital workflows in our lives will make us limit the number of apps we engage with frequently. Bringing in a degree of intentionality into our daily experiences will reduce the cognitive load caused by the clutter and notifications.
- Ultimately, just as it happens with minimalism in physical environments – the less the clutter and friction, the more YOU (not app makers) have control over your life, away from the device.