Digital declutter
A 30-day break from optional tech, then reintroduce deliberately
Thirty days away from all optional technologies, using the space that opens up to rediscover what you actually want to do with your time, then reintroducing only the tools that clearly serve something you value, and on your own terms. It is framed as a reset rather than as abstinence, because gradual cutting-back tends not to stick. Most people report that the first week is the only hard one.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Arnold SchwarzeneggerRecommends
Bodybuilding champion, actor, former governor · Arnold's Pump Club
Asks readers to open their phone's screen time report and find where the hours go, then cut an hour of social media to pay for the gym. He frames it as investing time versus spending it, and admits he watches Netflix at night himself.
Source: Arnold's Pump Club newsletter: Arnold Schwarzenegger's Screen Time Challenge - Cal NewportRecommends
Computer science professor · author of Deep Work
Recommends a full thirty-day break from optional technologies followed by deliberate reintroduction, not gradual cutting back.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #568 transcript“So the 30-day declutter is at the core of my philosophy of digital minimalism. So this was my take on what do we do about the fact that, starting around 2016, people became very uneasy about their phones in a way that they weren’t in 2014.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #568 transcript (opens in a new tab) · 4 Feb 2022
Aimed at the same thing
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Change the room instead of relying on willpower
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Time blocking
Give every hour of the workday a job before the day starts
On record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Deep work blocks
Long, scheduled, distraction-free sessions on one cognitively hard task
On record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 1 recommends it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Deliberate wandering
Unplanned, inefficient exploration kept on purpose as the counterweight to efficiency
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Hard thinking before lunch
Book the mentally demanding work for the morning and stop making big calls late in the day
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Pomodoro technique
Work in timed sprints, usually 25 minutes on and 5 minutes off
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it, 1 has discussed it
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