This is optimal living daily episode 13 24 on the pleasures and Sorrows of life without screens by Cal Newport of Cal Newport.com. And I'm just a Malik your personal narrator and the guy that reads to you every single day of the year from some of the best blogs in the world all for free and with permission from the author's covering personal development or self-help minimalism and more and thank you to butcher box right now butcher box is offering juicy flavorful Grill ready. A 100% grass-fed beef burgers perfect for any summer cookout for $20 off your first box and six burgers for free in every box all summer long until October 15th. Go to Butcher box.com old or enter promo code OU LD again for $20 off your first box and six burgers for free and every box all summer long until October 15th. Go to Butcher box.com 0ld or enter promo code Old for now, let's get right to it. As we optimize your life. On the pleasures and Sorrows of life without screens by Cal Newport of Cal Newport.com. I recently received a message from a friend of mine a young man named Mike. He told me that digital minimalism had changed his life. Naturally. I asked him to elaborate what he meant in response. He listed the following changes. He lost 15 pounds and dropped his body fat by 6 percentage points. He went from being terrible at dancing to pretty good. He sent me a video of him in a dance circle to prove this claim. He developed a Brazilian jiu-jitsu practice any strength in many relationships. Epps this list might seem surprising. My book is about technology and yet none of the changes listed by Mike seem to have anything to do with social media or smartphone settings. But as I've learned over the past few months, his experience is actually quite common among those who take the minimalist plunge when people contemplate the declutter process, I suggest in my book in which you spend 30 days away from optional technology as a Prelude to simplifying your Digital Life. They often predict that the me. Main challenge will be compensating for the benefits and features. They'll miss out on but this prediction is almost always wrong most people report that after a week or so of some mild withdrawal symptoms. They're surprised by how little they missed a features of services like Twitter or Instagram the real problem and this surprised me is figuring out how to deal with all the free time this move toward minimalism suddenly injects into your life. Here's our reader named Lori described the experience of going through Digital declutter quote. I learned that a lot of actions in my day are Mindless. We all have much more time than we think we do. We just fill it with lots of scrolling. Here's what I realized. I'm addicted to using my phone specifically using my phone to curtail board on during free periods in my life my problem, which is apparently common amongst people who have done this same digital fast is that it didn't have a good downtime activity to engage in end quote. Another reader of philosophy Professor named Anna put it this way quote. I was left with a lot of Silence. What do I do in the evening after work when I'm home alone and really tired and it's raining hard outside in the beginning. I spent a significant amount of time being bored. I wandered the house in circles looking for something to do and quote we convince ourselves that we use our phones to fill in occasional idle moments, but stories like Lori and Anna's Point toward a more troubling. Inclusion, perhaps we initially use our phones in this manner, but over time their role expanded suddenly pushing aside other more sustaining activities in our lives like the ones purely social Drinker who ends up hiding empty beer cans from his family all this tapping and swiping has a way of shifting from an occasional distraction to a default Behavior. So when you finally remove it you're suddenly left the whole mess of Silence just you and your feelings and an uneasy sense of not knowing what to do. To do next which brings us back to Mike faced with the sudden stretches of free time generated by minimizing his Digital Life Mike decided to aggressively fill in these blanks. He began by following my recommendation from chapter 4 to inject more Solitude into his life. He deployed what he called the aob method with his phone as in airplane mode off and in my bag to force themselves to regularly be alone with his own thoughts and start getting in touch. What he cared about what he was missing and most importantly what he wanted to do with himself because Mike is young in his 20s much of his socializing happened online. So he also decided to take proactive steps to replace this sense of connection after minimizing his Digital Life to do so, he instituted regular office hours each week pre-scheduled time periods during which his challenge was to connect with people. He cared about either in person or on the phone as Mike explains. To me he ended up getting back in touch with people. He hadn't really talked to in years and the long-form analog conversation fostered a sense of connection deeper than anything. He had experienced in recent memory. Finally. Mike made a list of the concrete personal goals. He wanted to pursue he recruited a board of directors and expert Mentor for each goal to help direct him and hold him accountable. It didn't take long before the accomplishments that opened this essay began to pile up Lori and Anna had Similar experiences, they'll Laurie reports. She's still looking to develop a quality Leisure activity. She's been investing heavily into real-world interactions with her friends quote. I've met with friends for a launch hung out with friends casually hang out with family casually play tennis with friends run with friends. I even spent a weekend away with my running friends from New Hampshire and quote Mana for her part also parlayed her boredom into more meaningful activities quote. I wrote a letter to a friend. Who is struggling right now? And I wrote cards to some graduating seniors in my college. I texted a friend and made plans for getting together over the weekend. I practiced yin yoga, and I went to bed early and to quote she ended up canceling the Netflix subscription. She previously relied on to escape from life. This is all really hard work. It's much easier to Simply fill your time posting to Instagram or passively gorging on auto played video, but Lori reports of reduction in anxiety and Stress coupled with an improved mood and I gave the following summary quote. I noticed that I feel better calmer more in touch with who I want to be and with what matters to me end quote and I've never seen Mike happier. You just listen to The Post titled on the pleasures and Sorrows of life without screens by Cal Newport of Cal Newport.com. They key to butcher box for $20 off your first box and six burgers for free and every box all summer long until October 15th. Go to Butcher box.com old or enter promo code o LD butcher box makes it easy to get high-quality humanely raised to meet every month butcher box delivers a hundred percent grass fed and grass-finished beef. Free range organic chicken Heritage breed poor Can wild Alaskan salmon directly to your door on dry ice no commitment and you can cancel at any time by taking out the middleman of grocery stores and purchasing direct from a collective of ranches butcher box is able to buy meat at a lower cost and pass those savings along to you and again for $20 off your first box and six burgers for free in every box all summer long until October 15th. Go to Butcher box.com Oh LD or enter promo code Old I'll leave it there for today. Hope you're having a great weekend and I'll be back tomorrow reading to you where your optimal life awaits.
Cal Newport of the Study Hacks blog shares his thoughts on the pleasures and sorrows of life without screens. Episode 1324: On the Pleasures and Sorrows of Life Without Screens by Cal Newport of Study Hacks Blog on Digital Minimalism Cal Newport is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University, who specializes in the theory of distributed algorithms. He previously earned his Ph.D. from MIT in 2009 and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004. In addition to studying the theoretical foundations of our digital age as a professor, Newport also writes about the impact of these technologies on the world of work. His most recent book, Deep Work, argues that focus is the new I.Q. in the knowledge economy, and that individuals who cultivate their ability to concentrate without distraction will thrive. The original post is located here: http://www.calnewport.com/blog/2019/05/31/on-the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-life-without-screens/ Please Rate & Review the Show! Facebook Group and Join the Ol' Family to get your Free Gifts! For $20 off your first box and 6 burgers for FREE in every box all summer long until October 15th, go to ButcherBox.com/OLD or enter promo code OLD. 