Welcome to the first edition of Offline, On Purpose, the weekly series to help you reclaim your time and attention, and build a life filled with creativity, meaning, connection, community, and purpose.
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First let me just address the elephant in the room, it’s kind of strange, maybe the better word is ironic, to have an online newsletter dedicated to being offline. I’m not here to villainize all technology or romanticize going completely offline (though I do occasionally fantasize). The lives we live are inherently connected by technology. Realistically it’s hard to avoid that, unless you’re moving to an off-the-grid cabin in the woods. There’s probably a Youtube channel for that, lol. But there are times when online spaces can also connect us and help create communities to foster collaboration and accountability. I hope this can serve as a tool for you.
What I’m here to do is help you create boundaries with tech, to make space for more in your life. I hope that each week brings you tangible actions to be less reliant on the devices and apps to which we’ve all become so tethered.
Going analog isn’t about consumption, it’s about reclaiming the gift of being present. A shift from watching life go by behind a screen, to experiencing it in real time, with all of it’s joy, pain, mundanity, and wonder.
This week, I want to give you a simple action plan for digital decluttering. Digital decluttering lays the groundwork for creating strong boundaries with tech. This is the stepping stone to creating a life where tech serves you, and not the other way around. Yes, the goal is to spend less time mindlessly scrolling on apps losing hours each day, but in order to do that, we need to be less reliant on our phones, and to simplify the role they play in our lives.
You can feel good about this too, digital decluttering is better for the environment, because every photo, video, email, document, and app stored in “the Cloud” is actually in a massive data center somewhere consuming energy.
I know that there are devices like the Brick to help cut back on screen time, and apps that promise the same, but I don’t love the idea of buying another piece of tech that may break or become obsolete. If it works for you great! But what you’ll find below are simple recommendations and guidance that do not involve buying anything, device, app or otherwise.
Here’s a simple action plan you can tackle over the next few days, and report back in week 2 when I share the best analog swaps for creating boundaries with tech.
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