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      <code>2019-10-05</code>
      <h1>Thoughts on digital minimalism</h1>
      <h2>Put that screen down!</h2>
      <p>Ah yes, yet another article on the internet on this beaten to death
subject. But this is inherently different, since it&#8217;s <em>my</em> opinion on
the matter, and <em>my</em> technique(s) to achieve &#8220;digital minimalism&#8221;.</p>

<p>According to me, minimalism can be achieved on two primary fronts &#8211;
the phone &amp; the computer. Let&#8217;s start with the phone. The daily carry.
The device that&#8217;s on our person from when we get out of bed, till we get
back in bed.</p>

<h3 id="the-phone">The phone</h3>

<p>I&#8217;ve read about a lot of methods people employ to curb their phone
usage. Some have tried grouping &#8220;distracting&#8221; apps into a separate
folder, and this supposedly helps reduce their usage. Now, I fail to see
how this would work, but YMMV. Another technique I see often is using
a time governance app&#8212;like OnePlus&#8217; Zen Mode&#8212;to enforce how much
time you spend using specific apps, or the phone itself. I&#8217;ve tried this
for myself, but I constantly found myself counting down the minutes
after which the phone would become usable again. Not helpful.</p>

<p>My solution to this is a lot more brutal. I straight up uninstalled the
apps that I found myself using too often. There&#8217;s a simple principle
behind it &#8211; if the app has a desktop alternative, like Twitter,
Reddit, etc. use that instead. Here&#8217;s a list of apps that got nuked from
my phone:</p>

<ul>
<li>Twitter</li>
<li>Instagram (an exception, no desktop client)</li>
<li>Relay for Reddit</li>
<li>YouTube (disabled, ships with stock OOS)</li>
</ul>

<p>The only non-productive app that I&#8217;ve let remain is Clover, 
a 4chan client. I didn&#8217;t find myself using it as much earlier, but we&#8217;ll see how that 
holds up. I&#8217;ve also allowed my personal messaging apps to remain, since 
removing those would be inconveniencing others.</p>

<p>I must admit, I often find myself reaching for my phone out of habit
just to check Twitter, only to find that its gone. I also subconsciously
tap the place where its icon used to exist (now replaced with my mail
client) on my launcher. The only &#8220;fun&#8221; thing left on my phone to do is
read or listen to music. Which is okay, in my opinion.</p>

<h3 id="the-computer">The computer</h3>

<p>I didn&#8217;t do anything too nutty here, and most of the minimalism is
mostly aesthetic. I like UIs that get out of the way. </p>

<p>My setup right now is just a simple bar at the top showing the time,
date, current volume and battery %, along with my workspace indicators.
No fancy colors, no flashy buttons and sliders. And that&#8217;s it. I don&#8217;t
try to force myself to not use stuff &#8211; after all, I&#8217;ve reduced it
elsewhere. :)</p>

<p>Now the question arises: Is this just a phase, or will I stick to it?
What&#8217;s going to stop me from heading over to the Play Store and
installing those apps back? Well, I never said this was going to be
easy. There&#8217;s definitely some will power needed to pull this off.
I guess time will tell.</p>
 
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