I have started a month-long digital declutter challenge on January 1st 2021. This is my 2nd time so my hope is I have learned from some of the mistakes of my previous challenge that I did almost 2 years ago.

As advised by Cal Newport in his book Digital Minimalism and in his course with Scott H. Young Life of Focus these are the steps I followed.

Step 1: Divide the technologies used in personal life into the below:

• Optional Technologies (as in being away from them would not get me into trouble): Facebook/Facebook page manager/ Facebook business suite/Instagram/ Netflix/ Twitter.
• Mixed Technologies:
  • Whatsapp after working ours
  • Gmail: not using it might cause communication hang-ups but also it’s a key source of distraction for me.
  • Audible/Spotify: they are not mandatory of course but they are key source of learning for me. Please note work email is not part of the challenge as this challenge is about personal life technologies.
• Mandatory Technologies:
  • Whatsapp- during working hours: used for work and meetings updates and also by kids’ school.

Step 2: Remove the optional technologies and set rules for the others:

On day -1 of the challenge I have created the following rules:

1. Remove Facebook apps from my phone with plan not to check them all month.
2. Remove Instagram and IGTV from phone with plan to check DMs and comments once a week  from laptop in order to avoid the “forbidden fruit” feeling.
3. Remove Netflix from from phone and only watch it on big TV screen with family or one show episode if alone.
4. Check Gmail once a day at a fixed time for 15 minutes
5. Limit Whatsapp usage time and block it between 6pm and 9pm which is family/homework/bedtime routine time.

The Actual of Week 1:

• Facebook: I needed to check a replay of a webinar on Facebook that  I subscribed to before starting this challenge so I opened facebook on web browser to watch it and wasn’t really the least interested to see what those red notifications were about. I’m also opening it temporarily for few days to follow up on a limited-time group for very useful decluttering challenge  where I saved the Facebook group link for direct access skipping newsfeed and can’t see any notification.
• Instagram: 100% commitment, at the end f of week 1 I  spent 20 minutes checking and replying to DMs and comments on my posts through Facebook business suite on web which feels like an email manager without all the scrolling, Thanks to my friend Nadia for this idea.  I also set up auto-reply telling friends I’m away for the month with my email address, so I am not sure I’ll log in to Instagram next week. Confession: I asked a friend to tell me how many followers I got while she was already on her Instagram. It is worth mentioning, however, that  I felt relieved a bit of the commitment/pressure to post and engage regularly. I’m gaining back space and renewing my creative energy that I can use for other types of content that matter so much to me like my podcast and blog. 
• Netflix: 100% commitment.
• Gmail: 100% commitment but noticed that I prefer to check it right after lunch break not in the morning, as a transitional leisure time back to work. I noticed also that what really wastes time is what I actually click on in my gmail not gmail itself. Clicks takes me to so many places: shopping, reading, checking statistics of my content, and guess what? Instagram missed me and sent me an email update at the end of week 1 for the number of followers I got! feeling so threatened dear IG? that was funny, i didn’t even realize instagram sends emails, or actually most of us are not giving them the chance to. Back to gmail, I’m trying to be more mindful about not opening new links without reading those opened links in my tabs from the day before.  I might also consider feedly again, but not sure yet.
• Whatsapp: What’s working: 6pm-9pm Whatsapp block is working so well for me. What’s not working yet:  I set out to use Whatsapp 45 minutes only but that was unreasonable compared to my previous behavior of 60-90 minute average so I tried 75 minutes but time was up by 2pm then I tried 90 minutes and time was up by 5:30pm. Then, I started experimenting  limited hourly Whatsapp time dividing 120 minutes by 14 waking hours (minus the 3 hours blocked), so I get around 8 minutes /hour and the app I use helps me track that so I’ll try this technique between 9am and 6pm and report back.

A funny cosmic incident happened in week 1. My smart watch galaxy e-fit-which was only allowed to show SMS/Whatsapp sender names notifications plus calls- stopped pairing with my phone! I guess/wish it is conspiring to help me in this challenge, I hope it’s a temp hiccup and that I don’t need to replace it. I’m happy it’s working fine as my steps tracker though.

Finally I am excited to report that I am enjoying my evening times the most with this challenge plus less kids’ homework load during January , so more fun time with kids. I’m putting them to bed then checking my Whatsapp which has become like a treat.

You can listen to this update in Arabic in episode 14 of my podcast below.