Digital Minimalism
Clear invasive overgrowth in your digital life
There is strong and growing evidence that people with a healthy relationship with their phones are calmer, happier and more centered.
One approach that is especially effective for daily life is to essentially remove all apps from the phone's Home Screen. It might look like the image above.
To use other apps on your phone, just pull down from the top to reveal the search area. Then type in the name of the app, and just start that:
This setup accomplishes several things.
It adds friction to any use of the phone beyond the most basic tasks like messaging your close contacts, or making a phone call. Any use that's actually worth doing is easily worth the friction, but any frivolous use now faces a helpful hurdle to deter it.
You will no longer open your phone to do one thing, then get dragged into a muscle-memory tour of other apps while you're there. It's far easier to do the thing you desired to do, then put the phone away.
The photos app is on the Home Screen as a form of digital medicine. If old habits overcome your intentions, and you frivolously reach for the phone to kill a moment, the only slot machine available on the first row is your personal photo album.
You'll get the option to see pictures from One Year Ago. So do that, enjoy 5-10 photos of your family, friends and hobbies from a year ago, and that'll be that. There's no more forever scrolling a feed for novelty that can suck you in for hours on end. Just a small slice of happy memories.
The Takeaway
Escaping phone addiction takes more than just a clever hack. You have to replace the time spent using the phone with better alternatives. I hope this has opened your eyes to the world of digital minimalism, and provides a small action to get you started. Give it a go.
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