Meet Aisha, a 28-year-old marketing executive living in the bustling city of Mumbai. Her day begins with the cacophony of notifications—a cacophony that continues to serenade her until she finally collapses into bed at night. Whether it's the steady stream of emails, the constant buzz of WhatsApp messages, the blinding glare of endless Instagram stories, or the intrusive pop-ups that plague her every online activity, Aisha is caught in a vortex of digital chaos. Her eyes ache from the screen time, her mind races with every ding, and her anxiety peaks as she struggles to distinguish between real and fake news.
Aisha's mornings are filled with frantic scrolling through newsfeeds, leaving her overwhelmed by the barrage of information. At work, she's glued to her laptop, juggling tasks and tabs, her brain in a perpetual state of overstimulation. Come evening, she unwinds by binge-watching Netflix, a habit that leaves her feeling even more drained. With countless passwords to remember and a growing fear of hacking, her digital life feels like a fortress she's trapped inside. It's a life filled with noise but devoid of meaningful connection, leading Aisha to the brink of a nervous breakdown.
Steve jobs banned his kids from using iPads
Interestingly, some of the world's most innovative minds chose simplicity over digital indulgence. Steve Jobs, for example, was known for his minimalist lifestyle, not just in his work but also in his personal life. Jobs limited his children’s exposure to technology, encouraging them to read and play instead. Similarly, other tech moguls like Bill Gates have publicly expressed the importance of digital balance, leading a quiet, less digitally immersed lifestyle. Their approach underscores a key lesson: technology should be a tool, not a tyrant.
Five Benefits of Digital Decluttering
15 Practical Steps to Declutter Your Digital Life
1. Trim Your Facebook Friends List: One fine day, I was able to easily remove 300 boring people from my friends list, after few weeks I closed my facebook account and never went back.
2. Organize Your Email Inbox: Unsubscribe from unnecessary newsletters and categorize important emails. Delete old and unwanted email, especially those email with large attachments. Create labels for incoming email based on sender or topic for easy reference or actions.
3. Clean Up Your Computer and keep it virus free: Delete duplicates, sort documents, and backup essential files online. Invest in a good virus scanner and firewall, it will save you years of headache.
4. Limit Online Profiles: Close accounts you no longer use or need. You can choose to delete your profile on sites that you no longer use to prevent from identity theft etc. Reduce your online presence to manageable level.
5. Use Productivity Tools: Employ task managers and password managers for efficiency. If you can organize your tasks and execute them as planned, you can achieve anything!
6. Set Up Break Reminders: Use apps to remind you to take breaks and stretch. You can use desktop or mobile apps to help you take a break every few mins or hours, totally worth it!
7. Reduce Online Subscriptions: Cut down on movie streaming services. The more you have the more effort you need to select a movie to watch. Too many options and you dont always end up being happy watching all those movies. Also watching movies/series everyday is a huge addiction and a monstrous waste of time.
8. Enable Dark Mode: Reduce eye strain with dark mode settings on devices. You can set this at OS level or at App level. Make sure you do this atleast for your Mail and work apps.
9. Practice Eye Exercises: Follow the 20-20-20 rule—every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Make sure to get up and walk after every 1 or 2 hours.
10. Turn Off Instant Chat: Disable instant messaging for periods of focused work. If you continue to be on chat you can't accomplish anything serious.
11. Mute Notifications: Only allow essential notifications to come through. Learn to work distraction free.
12. Use Timers for Tasks: Manage your time effectively with simple timers. Set timers to complete certain tasks, this will ensure your time is well utilized and other tasks wont get affected.
13. Take Power Naps: Short naps can refresh your eyes and mind. Few power naps a day can keep you fresh and motivated.
14. Invest in Online Storage: Use cloud services to store important files securely. Sooner or later all devices tend to crash or get lost, dont lose your critical data or precious memories.
15. Be Selective with Content Creation: Only create or consume content that adds real value to your life. Every file you create, your sub conscious may remember it, hence be mindful.
Mindful Digital Consumption
Be intentional about your digital interactions. Before purchasing a new gadget, subscribing to a service, or spending hours on a video, ask yourself if it truly enriches your life. Mindfulness in digital consumption not only saves time and money but also reduces mental clutter and exposure to unnecessary digital noise.
Essential Exercises you cannot miss
Incorporate simple exercises into your daily routine to combat the physical strain of a digital lifestyle:
- Hand Exercises: Stretch and flex your fingers to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Neck Stretches: Alleviate tension with gentle neck stretches and rotations.
- Eye Relaxation: Follow the 20-20-20 rule and perform eye massages to relieve strain.
- Leg Movements: Regularly stand up, stretch your legs, and walk around to improve circulation.
Next steps
World is moving towards virtual reality, but you have a choice to make the right decision
As artificial intelligence and digital innovations continue to evolve, our skills and interactions will need to adapt. Its not clear how long we will be able to keep up with the AI and work with or under it. Sooner or later AI is bound to make many of us outdated. So its important to learn to live a real life and grow and be happy in it. We must learn to work in the real world and appreciate simple pleasures of real life and people in front of us - this is perhaps the wise decision we can make as digital world and real world begins to merge flawlessly.
