And honestly, I really need one. I've recently fallen into the trap of reading comments on social media and it has not been good for my mental health. Yes, I know I should be using social media as a tool. But sometimes I cannot resist viewing a specific post and it goes downhill from there. So, yes I need a reset.

The main reason for this post though, apart from telling you that I'll be offline for a bit and not writing blog posts, is to invite anyone who reads this to give the Digital Declutter exercise a try. Take a break from living life online and start your own Digital Declutter.

You can follow this link for an explanation of what a Digital Declutter is, as well as what rules I'll be following for my own Digital Declutter.

Last year, I kinda went through a Digital Declutter without a specific focus in mind. For this year, I'm going to focus on reading more books.

Anyway, I hope you guys decide to give it a try. If you have any questions regarding this, you can find ways to contact me on this page, but sending an email is the best option.

Peace be with you and see y'all online on Easter Sunday.

Tags: #DigitalDeclutter #DigitalMinimalism #Lent

Follow this link for an explanation of what a Digital Declutter is, as well as what rules I'll be following for my own Digital Declutter.

I hope you guys decide to give it a try. If you have any questions regarding this, you can find ways to contact me on this page, but sending an email is the best option.

Peace be with you and see y'all online on Easter Sunday.

Tags: #DigitalDeclutter #DigitalMinimalism #Lent

If you don't know what a Digital Declutter is, it is an exercise I read about in Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism book. It's almost like a Digital Detox or a Digital Sabbath. The main differences are that you do it for at least 30 days, and that you are replacing addictive digital activities with analog activities. For instance, instead of browsing social media at night, you read books, or learn a new craft like cooking, or learning to play a musical instrument like the guitar, etc...

I suppose the easiest way to understand it is to look at the Digital Declutter rules I'll be using to guide me this year. I'm using the same rules from last year. The main highlights are that in addition to not using social media at all, there will be no blogging done as well.

Of course you don't have to follow the same rules I made for myself. You can create your own set of rules and do it at your own time. My main motivation for this post was to invite people to give Digital Declutter a try. If you have any questions regarding this, you can find ways to contact me on this page, but sending an email is the best option.

Have fun going offline, I know I will. Peace be with you and see y'all online on Easter Sunday.

Tags: #DigitalMinimalism #DigitalDeclutter #Lent

These rules are based off v2.0. There's not much modifications from the previous rules I had. The biggest change in this set of rules, is that I'm not allowing myself to do any blogging whatsoever. I already feel anxious and excited about that one. It will be a good challenge.

And so without further ado, my Lent digital declutter starts now. You can find the rules below. See y'all online on Easter Sunday.

Messaging Apps:

• Text Messages/iMessage: Allowed
• Facebook Messenger: Allowed, but can only check it once a day.
• Microsoft Teams: Allowed (needed for work)
• Everything else: Not allowed

Emails:

• Mobile Phone Apps:
  • Outlook: Allowed (needed for work) but can only be used during daytime, except on support calls.
  • Yahoomail: Allowed (needed for two factor authentication) but can only be used during daytime.
  • Protonmail: Not allowed
• On PC: Allowed
• On Tablet: Not allowed

Web Browsing:

• Mobile Phone Apps:
  • Safari: Not allowed, except for when I really NEED to lookup something and for going through already open tabs.
• On PC: Allowed (but see further restrictions below)
• On Tablet: Not allowed, except for when I really NEED to lookup something.

Reading Blogs/Journals/Websites:

• Mobile Phone:

  • Safari: Not allowed, except for going through already open tabs.
  • Feedly: Allowed
  • Are.na: Allowed

• On PC: Allowed but only limited to educational/career topics, like those on software development and productivity/self-improvement.

  • Jalopnik: Not allowed
  • Speedhunters: Not allowed
  • The Truth About Cars: Not allowed
  • Read.write.as: Not allowed
  • Micro.blog: Not allowed.
  • ESPN: Not allowed
  • News sites: Not allowed
  • Articles/posts from Are.na and Feedly: Allowed

• On Tablet: Not allowed

Posting to Blogs/Journals:

• No blogging allowed.

Reading/Educational Apps:

• iBooks: Allowed
• Kindle: Allowed
• Audible: Allowed

Social Media Apps and Websites:

• No social media use allowed.

Video Games:

• Mobile Phone Games: Not allowed
• Xbox One: Allowed at night for a max of 1 hour of play time during weekdays. Allowed with frequent breaks on weekends.
• PC Games: Same restrictions as Xbox One.

Video Streaming Apps:

• Netflix: Allowed during weekdays for at most 2 episodes or 1 documentary/movie. Allowed on weekends with less restrictions.
• Crunchyroll: Not allowed
• YouTube: Only allowed for viewing educational content
• Pluralsight: Allowed

Music Apps:

• Spotify: Allowed
• Pandora: Allowed

Misc Apps:

• Weather App: Allowed
• Apple Notes: Allowed, except when I have a pocket notebook on me.
• OneNote: Allowed, except when I have a pocket notebook on me.
• Obsidian: Allowed to work on my digital garden.

General Rules:

• Apps or services that are categorized or used as tools will be allowed, like the Calculator, Calendar and other such apps.
• Apps or services that have infinite pools, in other words infinite news feeds, will not be allowed.

Tags: #DigitalDeclutter #DigitalMinimalism #Lent #Spirituality

Pray, fast and give alms. That's what us Catholics should be focused on during lent. But what do they mean? And how do we practice them? Bishop Barron covers them really well in this Sunday sermon.

And even if you're not Catholic, watch it anyway. It's only 15 minutes long. There's some interesting ideas on self-discipline and helping the needy covered in the video. Surely, you don't need to be religious to be interested in that.

Tags: #Lent #BishopBarron #WordOnFire #Catholicism #Spirituality

And so I’ve been very interested in a new book by Jenny Odell called How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. She describes a world where “every last minute” ends up “captured, optimized, or appropriated as a financial resource by the technologies we use daily.” But in the midst of push notifications and likes and friend requests, a “certain nervous feeling, of being overstimulated and unable to sustain a train of thought, lingers.”

Sounds like a book I should read. Adding it to my “books-to-read” list.

I didn’t solve everything in my strolling, but I started to notice some patterns. I was finally able to hear God’s voice because the noise was turned down. I couldn’t block it out with the distractions–parties and drinking and social media and to-do lists and podcasts and music and movies and shows and idle fretting about work—that were my preferred methods. Instead, I just had to be present to exactly what I was feeling at each moment. If I was sad, I just had to be sad for a bit. If I was excited, I just got to experience it rather than try to share it on an online profile. If I was worried, I lived through the worry instead of numbing it.

I experienced something similar when I started practicing digital minimalism. I even wrote it down in my journal. Without distractions, it was like all of a sudden I had all this time to think, to be present, to live in the moment, to hear God.

I encourage you this Lent to do nothing. Odell recognizes that “the pitfalls of the attention economy can’t just be avoided by logging off and refusing the influence of persuasive design techniques.” Instead, wander through your neighborhood. If you feel the urge to document the walk, don’t judge yourself but simply ask why. Am I posting to connect or am I posting to show off? Does the impulse stem from aliveness or from loneliness? Most importantly, create the space in your life where God’s voice won’t be drowned out by a thousand other things. You don’t need to optimize each moment. You don’t need to listen to a podcast while you walk to work. You don’t need to check emails while you work out. You don’t need to watch television while you eat dinner. Do nothing, or at least, do ONE thing.

With Lent fast approaching, this, doing nothing, seems like a good challenge to take on. On the surface it seems easy, to just do nothing. However, if I really think about it, intentionally doing nothing seems a lot harder than say, just reading a book or going for a walk or sitting down to listen to a podcast. Not even sure I'll be successful at it, but I'll give it a try.

Link: A Not-So-Radical Proposal for Your Lenten Season: Do Nothing

Tags: #Bookmarks #Lent #Spirituality