Digital Minimalism is a fancy buzzword that is beginning to get a lot of traction in the online sphere.

In the modern Internet Age, much of our lives are lived through a piece of technology. We can easily spend hours and hours every day plugged into a device. We are constantly bombarded with notifications, messages, and alerts. The apps on our phones and computers can begin to pile up. Our file directories can grow endlessly long. Our camera reels hold thousands of photos and videos. It can begin to feel like you are losing control of your devices. Like they are so cluttered, and they feed you so much information at such a constant pace that you can feel overwhelmed.

I’ve written before about how it is important to re-frame our view of technology as a tool that serves us. How can we go about reclaiming control of our devices that we live so much of our lives through? How can we feel less overwhelmed, and more in tune with technology?

This is where Digital Minimalism comes in to save the day and offer a new way forward.

What is Digital Minimalism?

Before we dive directly into the concept of Digital Minimalism, it’s important to first understand it’s parent philosophy: Minimalism.

I’m sure that most of us have at least heard the term Minimalism before. It is a term that can be used to describe a certain form of art and music. More recently, however, Minimalism has come to symbolize a lifestyle.

It revolves around the simple idea of living with less. The ultimate goal being that a lifestyle of less will in turn lead to less stress, anxiety, feeling of overwhelm, and an increase in peace, control, and freedom.

” Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.” The Minimalists

In Minimalism, we rid our lives of unnecessary material items in order to find the aforementioned peace, control, and freedom. Makes enough sense right? Well, Digital Minimalism is exactly that, just extended to the realm of technology.

Why Should I Practice Digital Minimalism?

Just as in the philosophy of physical Minimalism, by ridding ourselves of unnecessary apps, programs, notifications, etc., we can bring about a sense of freedom in our technological lives. We can regain control of our digital lives, and realign ourselves with the way our tech should be: a tool that serves us.

Imagine for a moment a digital lifestyle of efficiency, control, and freedom. These attributes are something most of us can agree that we strive for in our lives. Digital Minimalism is a philosophy (or movement if you prefer to call it that) that can help you to achieve that goal.

Many of us aren’t truly aware of how cluttered our devices really are. It took me learning about Digital Minimalism to begin to look at how I used my tech and how it used me.

Now that we’ve familiarized ourselves with the concept, it’s time to jump into the how’s of Digital Minimalism, and take steps towards digital freedom.

Digital Minimalism and Your Computer

Okay, to start this section off I’m going to show you a screenshot of my desktop. You may look at this and think I’m a complete psychopath, gone off the deep end. You’d be partially correct, but hear me out in this post and maybe you’ll join me. Ready?

Clean Up Your Desktop

A desktop that looks like that is clean, easy to look at, and easy to understand. Mostly because there isn’t much to look at at all. I used to open up my laptop and the first thing I would see was random program shortcuts and file links strewn about. It was such a mess, it would actually cause me to have anxiety just looking at it.

An easy starting point to practicing minimalism with your computer is to work on clearing out your desktop to the bare essentials. For me, when I look at my desktop now, I don’t feel a sense of stress that comes with an overwhelming amount of clutter.

Every app shortcut that was on my desktop, I deleted. If I want to open an app now, I press the windows button and type it in. This forces me to be more mindful of how I use my computer. I open an app because I am specifically looking to open it, not because I see it on the desktop, get distracted from my original task, and open it.

Studies have shown that having a cluttered work space negatively affects your ability to work efficiently. The same principal applies with a desktop. By having a clean, empty desk(top), you will be primed to work more efficiently and purposefully.

Fix Your File Directory

The next step of the process is to clean up your file directory. If you’re like most people, you probably don’t have any of your files sorted into parent folders. Your file directory is just one long list of documents.

Try organizing your files into folders. For example, all your documents you have for a psychology class, put them into a folder titled “Psych.” If you have a bunch of java files, put them into a folder titled “Java Files.”

The main benefit of doing this is ease of finding documents when you open up your directory. Instead of scrolling until you find it, you can open your files, click “Psych,” “Psych Notes,” “Psych Notes 2/15.” It’s just a simple way to make your digital life a little easier and a little less stressful in finding what you need.

Practice Inbox Zero

This step involves practicing minimalism with your email. This is a big one, because I know I used to have thousands of undeleted emails just sitting in my inbox.

The biggest step to take with this is unsubscribing with all the spam mailing lists that you’re on. You’re most likely on mailing lists that you didn’t even know you signed up for. Most mailing list emails allow you to unsubscribe right within the email via an intentionally small, unnoticeable button that says “Unsubscribe.”

Just mass delete all your emails then. Every time a new email comes in, read it, and delete it as necessary. Seeing a clean, empty inbox at the end of the day adds a sense of accomplishment to your workday. It also keeps you feeling less cluttered overall, which is the entire point of Digital Minimalism!

A New Computer

If you follow these simple steps, you can be well on your way to complete computer zen. I encourage you to go beyond the advice I’ve given here and implement your own form of minimalism in your own computer! Hopefully, you too can open up your computer and experience a clean, easy to use, efficient system that can better be a tool for you to use. It’s up to you to experiment and see what works best for you.

The next part of this post is going to discuss implementing minimalism in your smartphone.

Digital Minimalism and Your Smartphone

If you thought I was a psychopath after you saw my desktop, seeing my iPhone’s home screen might send you running for the hills.

I used to spend an absurd amount of time on my phone. This was mostly due to the fact that I had a ton of time sucking apps on my phone like social media and games. But after taking time to apply some Digital Minimalism magic to my phone, I can truly say that my daily use time has decreased dramatically. Follow these steps and you too can have a better relationship with your smartphone.

Clean Your Home Screen

This step is identical to cleaning up your desktop on your computer. It serves the same purpose as I stated in that section, with the added bonus of making your smartphone less distracting to look at. Smartphones are a black hole of time wasting and procrastination, so cleaning up your home screen can allow you to break free from some of that.

I keep four essential apps in my top row. These four apps are tools that I use on a daily basis that benefit my life in a productive way. Apart from my banking app on the left, I highly recommend checking out the other three apps I have up there! In my home bar at the bottom, I keep two slightly less essential apps that I use daily. Every other app on my phone goes into a single folder that goes into the home bar.

That’s it. There’s not much to it. It’s quick, easy to look at, and easy to use. If I don’t feel like opening the folder to use an app, I will scroll left and type the app into the search bar. This functions much the same way as directly searching for an app on my desktop. It ensures that I’m opening an app because I actually want to open it, and not because I got distracted by it and impulsively clicked on it. The end result is more freedom, and more control when I open my phone.

Delete Social Media Off Your Phone

Another important step in practicing Digital Minimalism is deleting any unnecessary apps off your phone. This includes social media. Social media is fine, but it is a notorious time sucker. I know I’ve spent hours on end losing track of time scrolling endlessly through my social media apps. I used to bounce between the apps too, creating an endless cycle of checking this app, then that app, then this app, and back again.

Do yourself a favor and try to limit your social media use to your computer. This small change has been the single biggest factor in decreasing my phone use. The average person spend about 2 1/2 hours per day on social media, and a huge portion of that use is done through a smartphone.

Give yourself all that time back. Give yourself that freedom by deleting social media apps from your phone.

Stop The Notifications

We all know what it’s like to be bombarded with constant notifications. We know what it’s like to experience the anxiety inducing race to keep all those red badge icons off your apps. If you can’t delete your social media apps, its best to silence the notifications all together.

Go into your setting and turn off all notifications you would receive that don’t necessarily require your immediate attention. For example, I only get notifications from my calls app and iMessage. I still have the red badges turned off for them though, because personally I find the badges extremely annoying.

Cutting down on the notifications that I receive has drastically decreased how much I feel overwhelmed by my phone. Such a small action will give you so much more freedom when using your phone. You won’t have to be a slave to answering notifications any longer. There’s a certain peace of mind that comes along with that.

A New Way Forward

By practicing Digital Minimalism, you can help to declutter your digital life and gain a sense of freedom and control from the grip your technology used to have on you. It’s a new way of life, a new way forward. I highly recommend following the steps and advice I laid out in this post, and see how it changes your own relationship with your technology. Make your technology serve you, not the other way around. Digital Minimalism is a way to do that.

Experiment, play around with your settings, try new things. Create your own form of Digital Minimalism based off of whatever works for you. You don’t have to mimic my home screen or desktop exactly, everyone is different. The main goal is to create a digital space where you feel less stressed and more in control. Create a digital environment that you use to live your best life. Digital Minimalism is the way to get there.