# How to do a digital declutter

I’ve been writing about digital intentionality for a few months now, and I keep talking about how it’s important and it changed my life, but I haven’t yet told you how to actually do it.

If you want to implement digital intentionality, I strongly recommend a thirty-day ‘digital declutter’. Anything less is unlikely to work.

* * *

What is a digital declutter?
============================

The tl;dr
---------

During a digital declutter, you strip your life of all *optional* device use for thirty days. Then, in your newfound free time, you “explore and rediscover activities and behaviors that you find satisfying and meaningful”. Afterwards, you reintroduce optional technologies *only if* they’re the best way to support something you deeply value.[^ofn2l3w4fi]

Why thirty days?
----------------

Thirty days is long enough to break behavioral addictions, but short enough that the end is aways in sight. You don’t need to believe that you can live without the optional uses of your devices forever, just that you can do so until the thirty days are up.

* * *

How to prepare for your declutter
=================================

Sometimes people hear about this idea and want to get started right now right away today, but it’s usually prudent to take at least a couple days to prepare.

Decide on a start date — maybe the nearest Monday, or the first of the next month if that’s coming soon. If your phone is your alarm clock, buy a dedicated alarm clock to replace it. And make a plan for your thirty days.

1\. Find replacement activities
-------------------------------

At root, a digital declutter is not about your devices themselves; it’s about the shape of your life. Start by envisioning what you want your life to look like — not by thinking about all the things you’ll be getting rid of.

You might already know what you want to spend your newfound free time on, where you want to focus your newly expanded attention. If not, here are a few questions to surface what you’re excited about doing:

*   What would an ideal day look like for you?
*   What do you want to pay attention to?
*   What do you always mean to do but never get around to?
*   What did you used to love to do that you never do anymore?

### **Downtime activities**

Not every newly free moment can be harnessed to work on something big and exciting. You also need to figure out things that you will *actually do* at the end of a long day, when your brain and body are tired.

Your replacement activities for low-energy time should be things you already do, and/or things that are extremely easy and fun for you. Go for an aimless walk, talk with a friend or family member (in person if that’s easy, or on the phone), dump out a jigsaw puzzle on your table, doodle, play with your pet, strum your guitar, look at birds.

Reading can be a good default — it can be done anywhere, any time, and doesn’t require much energy. If you haven’t read a book in a long time, start with something that’s fun for you to read, not something you feel like you Should read but that will be a slog. The first time I did a digital declutter, I printed out the fanfiction I was reading!

2\. Define your technology rules
--------------------------------

In your declutter, you will strip away all **optional** use of your devices, for thirty days.

Non-optional uses are the ones without which your job, important relationships, or other parts of your life would fall apart. The core work tasks you have to do on your computer. Your texts with your kid that let you know when to go pick them up. Paying your utilities and medical bills. Calling your mom, maybe.[^m812t5xn4kh]

I recommend whitelisting the essentials. Everything else is out. Not necessarily forever, just for one month.

### Write down your operating procedures

Writing down your rules will force you to actually define them. What is definitely allowed? What is definitely not allowed?

If there are edge cases, write down the rules that govern them. Cal Newport gives the example of a student who allows herself to watch movies with friends, but not alone. Or, if you’re allowed to check your email twice a day, write down when you’ll do it.

Alex Turner’s advice:[^4vkkbpzmylm]

> Here’s my main tip to add to the book: *Have well-defined exception handling which you never ever ever have to deviate from.* When I read about how other people navigated the declutter, their main failure modes looked like “my dog died and I got really stressed and gave in” or “a work emergency came up and I bent my rules and then broke my rules \[flagrantly\].”
> 
> Plan for these events. Plan for feeling withdrawal symptoms. Plan for it seeming *so so important* that you check your email *right now*. Plan for emergencies. Plan a way to handle surprising exceptions to your rules. Make the exception handling so good that you never have a legitimate reason to deviate from it.[3](#footnote-3)

3\. Tell people you’re doing it
-------------------------------

This is *my* main tip to add to the book. People fear that if their only motivation for the declutter is internal, it’ll be too easy to fail. So I tell them to create social pressure by telling their friends, colleagues, and people they live with that they’re going to be as offline as possible for thirty days.

You may also need to tell people just so they don’t worry (or think you’re being rude) when you don’t respond to messages as fast as you used to. Knowing that you’ve already changed their expectations of your behavior can make it easier to change your behavior.

* * *

Stick it out
============

If you’re used to spending many hours a day on your devices, this will be a major life change. It may take time to find your new rhythm.

Some things about the digital declutter may feel good immediately. On my first day, I liked the feeling of having mental space, generating thoughts, and living in the world around me.

Not everything will come easily. It’s okay if the first time you sit down with a book, you don’t get absorbed in it for hours — if you haven’t read a book in more than a year, you might need to retrain your attention span.

If you usually pull out your phone in every moment of boredom, sitting with your thoughts will take some adjustment. You may be anxious or miserable with no stimulation at first, like I was. You can get through it.

* * *

Reintroducing technology
========================

At the end of the thirty days, you are free to reintroduce optional uses of technology back into your life. This is when you’ll build your long-term digital intentionality strategy.

**Refocus on the things you deeply value**, whether that’s spending high-quality time with your loved ones, finding love, making art, doing more deep work, or whatever else it may be. You want your device use to support these things, not get in the way of them.

So don’t just pick up where you left off. Start from a blank slate, and reintroduce things one by one, according to this screening process:

> To allow an optional technology back into your life at the end of the digital declutter, it must:
> 
> 1.  Serve something you deeply value (offering *some* benefit is not enough).
> 2.  Be the *best* way to use technology to serve this value (if it’s not, replace it with something better).
> 3.  Have a role in your life that is constrained with a standard operating procedure that specifies *when* and *how* you use it.[^1eapqjmb5jz]

* * *

FAQ (aka “I can’t do this because…”)
====================================

When people hear about my digital intentionality, the most common response is “I know I should do that, but—” and then some reason they think it couldn’t work for them. This short FAQ is my attempt to puncture that motivated reasoning.

What if I really need my devices for some specific thing?
---------------------------------------------------------

Then that specific thing is allowed. Add it to your whitelist. It’s not sufficient reason to throw away the whole idea.

Who shouldn’t do a digital declutter?
-------------------------------------

I think that pretty much everyone I know (or ever see or hear about) could benefit from a digital declutter. The one exception is my friend who’s in recovery from alcoholism, and less than a year sober. Sure, devices are detrimental coping mechanisms. But they’re a hell of a lot less detrimental than his default coping mechanism, which was literally killing him.

But other than those unusual cases who might experience massive personal harm from a digital declutter, I recommend that everyone try it. Even if you don’t think you have a problem. After all, if you don’t have a problem, it should be easy for you, right?

[^ofn2l3w4fi]: 100% of credit for the digital declutter idea & structure goes to Cal Newport, but I’m reproducing it here because it is much lower-friction for you to read this short blog post on the internet than it is for you to go and buy and read a book. But I do recommend reading it if you’re doing a declutter, since it goes into much more detail than I can here. 

[^m812t5xn4kh]: It’s tempting to try to justify a lot of things as essential. If you have a lot of long-distance friendships, messaging those friends or keeping up with their posts may feel essential to maintaining the relationship. But will one month of being behind on their posts significantly harm the friendship? Could you schedule a call with them instead of messaging? 

[^4vkkbpzmylm]: Alex Turner’s post on his own digital declutter is well worth reading: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fri4HdDkwhayCYFaE/do-a-cost-benefit-analysis-of-your-technology-usage  

[^1eapqjmb5jz]: Direct quote from Digital Minimalism. Again, if you’re doing a declutter, I recommend reading the whole book!