Digital Minimalism: 10 Ways to Limit Distractions and Reclaim Your Time

A few weeks ago, I sat watching our kids play, baby on my lap.

It was a beautiful spring Sunday—one we chose to fill with quality family time at a nearby park. Resting on the park bench, I was feeling grateful for the sunshine, when the one thing that could pull me out of that serene moment predictably did.

See, I’ve got this “phone twitch loop” that goes like this. I check texts, then email, then Facebook, Instagram and blog hits all in one fell swoop that usually spans two minutes. 

And there at the park, my eyes hit that shiny, light-pink phone case in the diaper bag at my side, and I wanted to engage.

I’ll just check the time, I thought. 

But as soon as my phone was in hand, there I sat, swiping away. I caught myself midway through my loop about to respond to a Facebook comment.

Why am I on Facebook now and, more importantly, why is this so hard to put down?

It was a question I couldn’t shake. That 6-inch rectangle had the upper hand on my actions by simply being within eyesight. I saw it clearly now. And it didn’t sit well.

Truth is that I, in having a history of exhibiting compulsive actions surrounding my iPhone, am very much not alone.

We are a society attached to our devices. Consider these recent statistics from psychiatrist Marysia Weber’s book “Screen Addiction: Why You Can’t Put That Phone Down”:

• American’s check their phones 47 times a day (and 50% check their phone in the middle of the night).
• 18 to 24 year olds check their phones 82 times a day (75% check their phone in the middle of the night).
• 65% of adults sleep with their phones and nearly all teens do.
• Americans spend an average of 3 hours and 30 minutes a day on their phone (over 2 of those hours are spent on social media).
• iPhone users touch their phone an average of 2,617 times a day. 

Lack of autonomy around our phones restricts us from living life on purpose. And herein lies the problem.

Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World said, “The urge to check Twitter or refresh Reddit becomes a nervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to support the presence necessary for an intentional life.”

We weren’t designed to live lives of constant interruption focused more on the digital world than the real world around us. Smartphone use is changing our brain structure and function, reducing gray matter in a way that mirrors chemical addictions. Constant phone checking is raising our stress levels, absorbing our time, hijacking our focus, and flat out causing us to miss out on our lives.

What can we do about this?

The first step is awareness. And the second is practicing digital minimalism.

Newport defines digital minimalism as: “A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.”

Here are 10 ways to limit distractions and reclaim your time by practicing digital minimalism:

1. Keep mornings quiet

When you look at your phone first thing in the morning, you focus on what your phone says is most urgent, not what matters most to you. Try starting the day with quiet and stillness instead of screen time. Keep your phone in airplane mode from the night before to avoid notifications.

2. Make yourself less available

Let go of the idea that you have to be available all of the time. You have no obligation to be constantly “on call.” When responding immediately to dings becomes habitual, broken attention becomes your norm. Plus, if your phone frequently takes priority over the person you’re with, they may start questioning their importance to you.

3. Consolidate texting 

Instead of responding to text messages as they’re received, consolidate your texting. First, keep your phone in Do Not Disturb mode by default (you can adjust the settings so calls from a selected list, like your Favorites, still come through). Texts will only be seen by opening up the app, making them like emails. 

Next, schedule specific times for texting—consolidated sessions where you review and respond to previously received texts. You may choose to text back and forth for a few minutes, but then turn the phone back to Do Not Disturb mode and continue with your day. Despite being less available, consolidated texting can actually strengthen your relationships as your messages become more deliberate. 

4. Rethink email 

Remove email notifications from your phone. In fact, remove your email app entirely. The time it takes to download the app again will give you time to ask yourself questions. Do you really need to check your email again or are you just checking out of habit? Behavior change requires putting space between a stimulus and a response. Remove what triggers you to refresh your email feed and you’ll do it much less often.

Set specific times to check email, and then limit all email correspondence to those times. Maybe this means checking email at noon and again in the evening. Or maybe you dedicate a block of time several days a week to complete all email-related work. 

5. Raise your awareness

Behind social media apps are highly intelligent designers working to get you to spend as much time on their platforms as possible. Any app with a “like” button capitalizes on the fact that our brains release far more dopamine when our reward is unexpected than when it is predictable (psychology calls this term variable reinforcement). These apps are like slot machines leaving us constantly wondering “What will I get next?” And so we return in search of another dopamine hit. Keep this in mind before you log on. Don’t fall into their time-leaching traps.

6. Change how you use social media

Reduce the temptation to mindlessly scroll by removing all social media apps from your phone. Begin only using social media on your laptop, and schedule a set amount of time for social media use. Maybe this looks like 30 minutes in the evening 3 times a week. Or 10 minutes a day after lunch. Prepare yourself to be amazed at how much more free time you have (remember the average American spends over 2 hours a day on social media).

7. Engage in high-quality leisure 

Use this extra time to engage in high-quality leisure activities. Learn a new skill (ukulele, knitting, a second language). Go on more walks. Join a cause you feel passionate about. High-quality leisure is essential to increased focus. Novelty facilitates new brain cell growth and rest/play refuels our creativity and capacity to work.

8. Spend time in silence

Compulsive smartphone use is driven by an imbalance of two pathways in the brain: the “liking” system and the “wanting” system. When the “wanting” system is in overdrive, we begin doing things despite rationally not liking our choice. This is the case in chemical addictions and behavioral addictions alike (read more in Weber’s book). Silence helps rebalance these two brain pathways, resulting in less compulsive phone use.

9. Intentionally spend time alone

With a phone constantly within reach, spending time alone with your own thoughts—free from the input of other minds—is difficult to achieve. Before cell phones, our days were full of moments ripe for solitude and self-reflection: waiting in line, walking down the street, cleaning the house, working on your yard, taking the subway. Today, these are all opportunities to plug in. Challenge yourself not to use your phone during these natural breaks and spend time with your thoughts instead.

10. Challenge the belief that you always need your phone

Simply seeing your phone can trigger the desire to use it. Intentionally keep your phone out of sight more often. This may mean leaving your phone at home or in your car’s glove compartment while running errands. It may mean taking walks without your phone or with your phone buried in the bottom of a backpack. Ask yourself, “Do I really need this?” before automatically bringing your phone along.

Newport said, “Humans are not wired to be constantly wired.”

If you’re exhausted by your compulsive smartphone engagement, I encourage you to try a couple of the ideas above.

Praciting digital minimalism allows our smartphones to work in our advantage, supporting our best life instead of distracting us from it.

We only get one life. Let’s not miss it because of an unchecked attachment to our screens.

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Julia Ubbenga is a freelance journalist whose teachings on minimalism, simplicity, and intentional living have reached thousands of people worldwide through her blog. Julia practices what she preaches in her Kansas City apartment home with her husband, two extremely lively young daughters, and 9-month-old son. You can also find her on Instagram.

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