A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestseller“Newport is making a bid to be the Marie Kondo of technology: someone with an actual plan for helping you realize the digital pursuits that do, and don’t, bring value to your life.”–Ezra Klein, VoxMinimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal … applies this idea to our personal technology. It’s the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world.
In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.
Digital minimalists are all around us. They’re the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. They can get lost in a good book, a woodworking project, or a leisurely morning run. They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the experience. They stay informed about the news of the day, but don’t feel overwhelmed by it. They don’t experience “fear of missing out” because they already know which activities provide them meaning and satisfaction.
Now, Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement, and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world. Common sense tips, like turning off notifications, or occasional rituals like observing a digital sabbath, don’t go far enough in helping us take back control of our technological lives, and attempts to unplug completely are complicated by the demands of family, friends and work. What we need instead is a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions.
Drawing on a diverse array of real-life examples, from Amish farmers to harried parents to Silicon Valley programmers, Newport identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude. He then shares strategies for integrating these practices into your life, starting with a thirty-day “digital declutter” process that has already helped thousands feel less overwhelmed and more in control.
Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values, rather than letting it use you. This book shows the way.
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You’re not the user, you’re the product. Hang up, log off, and tune in to a different way to be in the world. Bravo, Cal. Smart advice for good people.
Tired of being an unwitting product in a digital experimentation where we’re psychologically shaped by forces we don’t understand – and sometimes don’t even believe are manipulating us? Here you go. While the book isn’t as abstract as Deep Work (my favorite of Newport’s work so far, though I’m looking forward to his critique of email), this is a good reminder of how social media shapes us – and how we have more control than we think.
Cal Newport is always on my best of list when he has a book out, mostly because I admire how he stares into the digital abyss and finds a path for us mere mortals to navigate. I appreciate the thought behind this book—how can we find ways to make the internet work for us, instead of sapping our energy and creating issues? A wonderful quick read and a solid life plan for those of us who struggle with digital addictions.
Let’s rid ourselves of distractions that absorb our vital energy. Let’s rather use it to its fullest, moving away from distractions such as “toxic” messages (“garbage in, garbage out”: if we feed our mind with garbage, we can only get the same garbage out) from society and the media, which affect our positive energy.
Useful book!
A must read for these times we are living in. Human’s brains are wired for reinforcing stimuli and few inventions have played us as well as the smartphone ecosystem. If we do not make a concerted effort to regain our focus the default mode will be to only devote what is left our attention to what really matters.
One of the best characters I’ve created is Caleb Stoltz in BETWEEN YOU & ME. He lives in an Amish community, and he’s the most focused and centered person I’ve ever written about. He could have been used as an example in this important book–What you do in your spare time matters. The author beautifully expresses (and backs up with examples) the richness that comes from filtering out all the digital “noise” and focusing on reading a book, making art, spending time with friends and family–doing anything other than mindlessly scrolling through endless news feeds and gossip. It’s all common sense, but it takes enormous effort to bring life back into focus.
What a timely and useful book! It’s neither hysterical nor complacent – a workable guide to being thoughtful about digital media. It’s already made me rethink some of my media use in a considered way.
A must read for how to function in this highly digital world we live in today. This book doesn’t simply tell you to set your phone down and take a break from social media, but gives you concrete ways to change your habits, as well as the underlying science of how all of this technology is reshaping our brains, and not always for the better.
An excellent book for anyone dealing with the problem of social media overwhelm.
I highly recommend this, as well as the book DEEP WORK, also by Cal Newport.
Not judgmental or alarmist. Just clear information about how social media is geared toward hooking people and keeping them scrolling as long as possible. He provides a plan for breaking your digital media addition and how to use it to enhance your life rather than break it down.
I love me some minimalism, and I’m always interested in ways to be thoughtful in what I choose to purchase and how I spend my time. This book discusses the idea of decluttering our digital lives. The arguments and supporting research were interesting, but what I liked best was the concrete suggestions for how to declutter. If your mobile phone is wheezing under the weight of all the apps you’ve downloaded, please, do it and yourself a favor and read this book.
Earlier this year, author Roni Loren blogged about her 30-day social media break, and credited Cal Newport’s books, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World and Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World for the greater part of her amazing productivity during that time. I found her experiment truly inspiring, particularly as for the earlier part of this year, I was feeling overwhelmed by the demands on my time, and exhausted by the effort of maintaining a social media presence.
I’d had four titles release in quick succession (one a month) in the latter half of 2018, and was working my way toward the release of Purple Haze. Generally, I enjoy interacting with friends and readers on Facebook, in the few groups I’m active in and on my personal timeline. I try hard not to spam any of these places with news of my upcoming releases and have always tried to maintain a consistent activity level so that when I do talk about my books, the post isn’t a serious departure from “what Kelly posts about.” Writing is an integral part of my life, therefore it’s a part of my timeline.
I’ve always had a difficult relationship with social media, though. I often have to make myself go online and do the thing. I assumed it was because I was old and more extroverted than introverted. I like spending time with people. I also prefer to converse face-to-face, where I can read facial cues and body language. I’m often confused by the tone (or lack thereof) of text messages. Like most older people I know, I use a lot of emojis when texting, because they help intonate. That’s me grimacing and smiling and winking. Even while texting, I’m still trying to tell you with my face how I feel about this.
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World explained a lot of my difficulties with texting and my ambivalence toward the true value of social media. There are times when interacting with the people in what I call my Facebook Book Club immeasurably brightens my day. On the flip side, I often close the Facebook tab feeling depressed about my writing career. I’ve been reminded how many other writers are releasing a book this month and how much better they’re doing (ratings, number of reviews, traction with readers, random reader posts telling everyone how much they love the book). I can never tell how I’m going to feel after being online.
The solution? Make more deliberate choices. One of the practices Newport recommends is to remove social media from your phone. I’ve tried this before with limited success, but after reading this book, I feel better prepared for it. Facebook can wait until I get home and I often forget to check Twitter anyway. I’ll keep Instagram, but I intend to use it more spontaneously, rather than try to think of something to post.
What I really got out of this book, aside from a strategy to reduce my time spent mindlessly scrolling and perhaps taking a hit to my delicate writerly ego, is what to do with the time I gained. I had vague ideas of wanting to draw again, of reducing my TBR pile. Of watching more movies at home (like I used to do), instead of half-hour TV shows that I only half watch while I’m scrolling through Facebook. I want to pay more attention to my offline life, and the only way to effectively do that is to step away.
I also really enjoyed the historical anecdotes and wealth of scientific information. Honestly, even if you don’t feel the need to minimalize your digital life, this book is worth the read simply for the history of social media and how it’s designed to hijack your spare time.
In Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport is saying things we already sense to be true.
Social Media and all the digital trappings of our day are diminishing not only our quality of life, but the quality of our LIVING. He supports his theories with fantastic research and fleshes out the concepts with stories of real people, stories you will relate to. He includes enjoyable practical steps along the way.
Digital minimalism = maximizing the more meaningful pursuits and relationships of life. Even if your work (or livelihood) relies on digital technology, you can still adopt the meaningful priorities of digital minimalism. And I might say, ESPECIALLY if your work relies on digital technology, this book will be a welcomed message!
I love Cal Newport’s work. His book Deep Work changed how approached so many things, and this book is a logical extension of that one. Really enjoyed how he laid out his arguments and then didn’t just tell you why you should reevaluate how you approach social media and such but gave practical step by step ways to do it. I particularly enjoyed the suggestions on what to do in the time you recapture when you dial back all the phone checking and mindless clicking.
I challenge you not to devour this wonderful book in one sitting. I certainly did, and I started applying Cal’s ideas to my own life immediately.
I’ve been thinking a lot these days about making more deliberate tech choices. No one human–not even Steve Jobs–ever expected technology to invade our lives the way it has. Instead, keeping us tethered to our tech and pulling that lever became the most popular and obvious way to monetize the Internet, and we individuals became, not the consumers, but the product being sold. And instead of cutting ourselves some slack–billions of dollars have been spent in the name of making the screens around us stickier and sticker, is it any wonder we’re drawn in?—we feel guilty about being too weak to just shut it off and look away.
The perfect antidote to that guilt is Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. Newport skips the guilt (noting that we didn’t ask for this and really could not have been prepared for it) and challenges to ask ourselves: what am I trying to do when I use this technology—and is this the best way to serve that goal?
Build a philosophy around your tech use and you’ll use your tech more wisely. I’m trying, and this book is helping.
I have always been minimalistic by nature. But Cal Newport’s book “Digital Minimalism” has helped me take this to another level.
While the title might fool one into thinking it’s a siren call for luddites, this informative and practical read is more of a treatise on the responsible use of technology and social media.
I was introduced to Newport through his other popular book “Deep Work” which examined the importance of intense focus in the professional world and how distractions were preventing people from delivering their best work.
Dovetailing off of this theme, Digital Minimalism underscores how thriving in today’s “always on” high tech world is largely predicated on investing “less” time on those forever consuming digital devices. In Newport’s words:
“Digital Minimalism is 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.”
Newport offered this concluding statement towards the tail end of the books which in my view fully captures the essence of the digitally minimalist movement he espouses:
“In my experience, the key to sustained success with this philosophy is accepting that it’s not really about technology, but is instead more about the quality of your life. The more you experiment with the ideas and practices on the preceding pages, the more you’ll come to realize that digital minimalism is much more than a set of rules, it’s about cultivating a life worth living in our current age of alluring devices.”
This is the book you need to read if you want to disconnect–even just for a brief period of time–from social networks and online life.
This book is much more than a guide to reducing time online or on your phone, it really digs into how to build real relationships in this highly digital age and how to improve our own well-being. Anxiety has skyrocketed since the internet and social media, and he makes strong arguments about how and why we can all benefit greatly from stepping.
One of the most important reads for persons who really want to buckle down and achieve somethings. Newport points out the more one can arrange their daily lives to concentrate on a limited number of topics, the faster one mentally develops.