Digital declutter.

I have recently left my phone at home when I went for a walk and the urge to reach into my pocket and check if anything popped up on the screen was terrifying. I didn't need it do it. It wouldn't add any value to my life. And yet I craved it so much!

It got me thinking really hard about my relationship with technology. I'm not spending hours and hours of my life online, although I do catch myself going down a rabbit hole of videos, pictures and posts sometimes. I can endlessly search for something on the internet and click link after link.

So I thought that, given that it is Lent now, I will perform a digital declutter as suggested by Cal Newport. I recommend his newest book Digital Minimalism as an interesting background reading and a lot of inspiration. I listed all my optional technology use, decided what to ban and what to limit to a defined set of operational procedures.

Can I stick with it until the end of Lent? Maybe. I know some things will be easier than others. I can probably survive without browsing Facebook, but can I stop compulsively checking my email? Deleting social media from my phone was easy enough, but will I be able not to reach for it so often?

The key to success, according to Newport, is to replace optional technology use with high quality leisure activities. This is probably the more challenging part of the digital declutter. I am used to mindlessly engage in web-browsing, watching videos and checking news sites. Changing this habit into thinking through how I spend my free time requires that I treat leisure seriously, as an important part of my life. I plan my work activities, why shouldn't I plan what I do when I don't work or sleep?

My aim is to plan a leisure activity for each evening. So far I have scheduled in reading, which I do pretty much every day anyway, Clubbercise, baking, making a scrapbook, walking, playing the piano, stretching exercise and joining a book club. I really hope that I would be able to find new joy of leisure in the coming weeks and maybe even discover long-forgotten talents and hobbies.

I suppose that it is quite lucky that my digital declutter coincides with Lent: I need to refocus on my faith and all the digital media often interfere with it. I hope to empty my mind of the cacophony of voices and find peace.