It’s been 10 days since I ended my 45-day digital declutter challenge, so here is an update.
Good habits that I am keeping:
Blurry lines I need to think about:
As I’m preparing to end my digital declutter challenge I would like to share my social media mission statement and digital rules below:
My social media mission statement (draft #1):
I am on social media to teach what I learn from books I read and self-development experiments I apply in my personal life. I want to inspire people and women in particular to love themselves and take care of themselves first through goal setting and building and tracking positive daily habits in order to be able to take care of the people in their lives and meet their responsibilities with energy and love.
Here are my new digital engagement rules after I finish my digital declutter challenge on Feb 15th. I will do maintenance for these rules by reviewing and tweaking them every month to better manage my time and attention.
Continue reading “My New Digital Rules”My screen time this week is down by almost 50% compared to my previous behavior where I only used my phone for an average of 3 hours 15 minutes daily, and that includes kindle and maps. I’m so proud.
All my rules have been working just fine. I met a friend for coffee last week and I didn’t have a book on me so I waited for her staring out the window which was a nice change.
Some friends reached out via whatsapp saying they missed me and looking forward for my return and I reminded them to check my newsletter where I have been sharing my most important updates regarding this challenge.
A friend said she just realized I was in a challenge so my insight is it takes around 2 weeks for people who regularly interact with you to start missing you on social media.
I have noticed that my email list’s growth is slowing down which is making Instagram’s value for my work clearer as it has been the key source of newsletter subscriptions. Instagram then is for marketing my work. I will go back to it after this challenge to share what I create for my core work which is my podcast and blog and hopefully future online workshops and to engage in Live sessions with my dear followers and encourage them to stay in touch with me via my newsletter.
I have also decided to extend my challenge to February 15th . One week after kids start the 2nd non-online (fingers crossed) school semester and we settle into our new routines.
You can listen to this update in Arabic in episode 17 of my podcast below:
I am happy to report that my phone usage has dropped to an average of 4 hours a day compared to my pre-challenge 6 hours average in best case scenraios.
My Whatsapp usage didn’t decrease overall, however my whatsapp scattered screentime has been optimized and I found the challenge getting easier in week 2 as I updated Whatsapp rules to the following:
I am getting bored fast with gmail and I kept the habit of cheking it after lunch break as a transitional activity between break and work.
I have noticed that I am remebering my dreams vividly since starting this challenge. It’s like the decrease in images entering my brain is making it easier for my brain to retrieve its own creations. Interesting, no?
I am also reflecting on the importance of real-time sharing. Do I really need to stop reading and share that book quote snapshot with my groups on spot? Is it really necessary to interrupt admiring the sunset and start talking about the beauty of its image with family memebers? Do I have to share the kid’s cute game while they are playing it and thus leave them? if not physially, attentionally?
This is something I will really take into account when ending this challenge. I love to share cool things I read or photos I take or podcasts I listen to. Changing this might mean I take screenshots or photos all day and share them all at a specific time with my family and friends, or add them to to my social media stories. I will always remember what I wanted to share if I just look into my gallery. If I feel the urge I will say to myself why now? can it wait? maybe add it to my awesome weekly newsletter? Let’s see where this goes.
You can listen to this update in Arabic in episode 16 of my podcast below:
https://bardees.simplecast.com/episodes/16
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:
Step 2: Remove the optional technologies and set rules for the others:
On day -1 of the challenge I have created the following rules:
The Actual of Week 1:
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.
Digital declutter during weekends has had a completely different vibe for me compared to work days, where weekends so far have been easier for disconnection versus being at the office in front of a tempting computer screen most of the day.
As the work week started I found myself missing my personal email the most. It turns out I am addicted to the stimulation it provides, even more than Facebook because, surprisingly, I hardly miss the latter.
My personal email is mainly made up of favorite blogs subscriptions, amazon deals and make-up and kids’ clothes deals, in addition to linkedin updates. As a result, my initial rule of checking it during the weekend for 30 minutes only could not stand, so I amended it to checking it daily, only on desktop, for 5 to 10 minutes while the timer is set and running. I also started unsubscribing to many commercial newsletters because they are crowding my email that I can’t find the important communications fast.
I have also modified the Netflix rule where I can now watch 3, not 2, episodes of Netflix a week. I did this because I mostly watch comedy series which usually take 20 minutes per episode and that would have finished my allowance in 4 days only according to my 10 minute rule which was too extreme for me.
As a matter of fact, minimizing streaming entertainment has been the most challenging for me, 10 minutes a day only is not easy, where I mentioned before that I already have this particular habit of enjoying evening meals while watching something, mostly comedy, on Netflix. I used to think of this time as my mental break, so it is going to be interesting to see what will happen in the coming 20 days as I change my relationship to entertainment , not that it is harmful or anything, but I do believe that depending on something this much must be unhealthy for us and a red flag we need to take care of.
During digital declutter I also noticed I’ve been missing local news, because I barely listen to any radio show and never buy newspapers and Facebook and twitter were my sources. Since I’m not using them now I decided I need to stay more tuned to morning radio shows to keep up to speed with local or even international news that are relevant to us and maybe read news online once in a while.
I also happen to love music apps, like anghami, and I didn’t even consider them in my digital declutter challenge. However, I noticed a funny thing about the human brain; we always want a way out. So, skipping songs and looking for the perfect song or playlist has become my new thing while working or while doing house chores. Our brains got so used to entertainment that even music apps could be addictive and time wasting. This is not a totally finding, I experienced this in my reading fasting last year.
Don’t worry though, I have not set rules for those apps during digital declutter. It’s just about mindfulness of the exit strategies we implement to avoid the present moment.
It’s been indeed a very interesting challenge so far, and I wonder what more insights I would enjoy finding out during the remainder of the month.
Stay tuned.