Digital Minimalism: How Fewer Gadgets Can Improve Your Well-Being

Have you ever thought of setting yourself free from the mental clutter your devices give you? The trend for Digital minimalism has risen recently when Cal Newport published his book of the same name, and it was a real bombshell in the field of self-care. We often care for our bodies more, but our brains need gentle treatment just as much.

The bond between physical and emotional well-being is unbreakable, and if you spend too much time on your gadgets, digital minimalism will definitely have a negative impact on both.

But are there any real reasons to try to minimize your screen time? What are the benefits you can get from digital minimalism? This is a list of four things that will improve as you try digital minimalism.

Mood Swings Eliminated

You probably know how it feels: you come home after a tiring working day, lay in your bed, and go scrolling the Instagram feed to relax your brain—at least, that’s what you think. But suddenly, it turns out you get irritated and disappointed instead of relaxed because the profiles you look at make you wonder if you have achieved enough. You look at the pictures of bloggers, travelers, and businessmen and compare yourself to each of them. And boom!—your evening is wasted, and your mood is down.

To make your phone usage productive at this point, the digital minimalism winning strategy would be the following:

• install some mood tracker—for example, the Liven app can work perfectly for this goal;
• check in with yourself when you feel the switch in your mental state so that you can reflect on it later;
• limit your time on apps like Instagram, at least for the observable future.

You will definitely feel better as there will be fewer triggers. You eliminate them, and so it is easier for you to control your mood when the extra reasons for anxiety, irritation, or the fear of missing out are gone! The longer you choose to ‘detox’ like that, the better your results will be.

Better Focus & No Brain Fog

I bet you have had this experience multiple times: your head doesn’t seem to work right when you spend a long time in front of your screen. It gets harder to think, and your brain feels very slow. This is what people usually call a brain fog: lower concentration and productivity.

There are some things we cannot leave behind, like our jobs. And if you, like many others today, work on your computer, why overload yourself with screen time when you finally get to close the laptop?

Try finishing your working day with a digital-free walk: just you and nature (or the city) around, with screens in sight. You will be surprised by how free your thoughts will feel.

One more life hack: avoid your phone in the morning as you get ready for work. Dedicate the early hours to yourself only and let your mind go with the flow. Embrace the silence around you, or dive in the noise the morning brings—whatever it is, it will bring you to the present instead of throwing in the maelstrom of world news so many of us dive in before we even get up.

More Time To Spare

We all have the same amount of hours in a day, and it often seems to us that 24 is not enough to do everything we would like to squeeze in them. Work and rest, hobbies and communication—they all require our equal attention and presence. But what if I told you that you can do it all by simply.. not making your phone or laptop a hobby?

When you get rid of the habit of getting glued to your smartphone every spare minute, you will see how much time you actually have to think, relax, and dedicate to the activities you have wanted to perform.

In this case, digital minimalism truly does its magic and stretches your days. Don’t believe it? Just try, and you will see it yourself.

Smart Spendings

The fewer advertisements you see, the less likely you are to mindlessly purchase stuff you didn’t need seconds ago. It works as simply as that, and it is a perfect strategy for those who know they struggle with impulsive shopping. Back in the days, it was TV shopping channels that actively advertised the stuff most of us never needed, and now it is the bloggers on social media who persuade us we can make our life better with only one money transaction.

It will come as a big shock to you the allowance you will be able to save by simply making your spending smart again. What’s great is that it is not really a limitation of any sort; it is just the absence of excessive spending.

In the meantime, you feel calmer because you don’t have to stress out about your savings and finally get the chance to invest this money into your health—for example, make a full check up or plan a visit to some certain specialist you have been postponing for so long.

Conclusion

The time we spend on our screens does influence the way we feel, both physically and mentally. If social media overwhelm us, we get tired, devastated, and sometimes even sick. Can we avoid the potential negative effects? We sure do, and the tool is simple enough to use it starting from today.

Give digital minimalism a try, and you will notice how much easier it gets for you to stay focused, feel good, and get more things done in the same time span. The more present you are in your real life instead of the one on your screen, the more you tend to accomplish, starting from your well-being and finishing with the professional success you pursue.