The Digital Environment Reset
Change the setup once, and stop paying for it with willpower every day after.
- Runs for
- One session, then a monthly check
- Costs you
- 30 minutes once
The problem
You're spending willpower to resist a setup that was built to beat it. Every notification, every app on the home screen, every phone on the nightstand is a small bet against you, and you take that bet hundreds of times a day.
The protocol
How to run it
- 1
Turn off every notification that isn't a real human being. Apps don't get to interrupt your life. People do.
- 2
Take every feed app off your home screen. Bury them in a folder, or delete them and use a browser instead.
- 3
Move your charger out of the bedroom tonight. Buy a cheap alarm clock if that's what it takes.
- 4
Set up your workspace so the phone lives in another room while you work. Not face-down on the desk. Another room.
- 5
Switch your screen to grayscale for a week, and notice how much of the pull was just colour.
- 6
Once a month, walk this list again. Environments quietly drift back.
What to expect
This is the highest-return thirty minutes on the whole site, and the only protocol that keeps paying without any ongoing effort. Expect the first two nights without a phone in the bedroom to feel strange, and your sleep to improve within a week.
The thinking behind it
Digital Minimalism: Using Technology on Purpose13 min