My Only Goal for 2021: Digital Intentionality, Not Minimalism

Over the holidays I sat down to decide which skills to invest in for 2021, and working in technology the obvious candidates were everywhere: artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain and the rest of the trend list. But when I looked back honestly at how 2020 went, for my career and my lifestyle, the area that needed the most work wasn’t a technology. It was my digital life.

The problem: running on autopilot

Too often I’m on autopilot. I scroll social media feeds, watch one YouTube video after another, and binge mediocre movies and TV series without ever deciding to.

It isn’t only about distractions. The same pattern shows up in the “productive” side of my day. I burn the midnight oil to hit deadlines that I invented myself. I start out solving a problem and end up three rabbit holes deep in other topics and discussions, sidetracked without noticing. Technical work is no exception: reading about one thing quietly turns into reading about five others.

It sounds silly once you picture it offline. Imagine getting in the car and starting the engine with no destination. You just drive around the block and hope something fun turns up. Along the way you also pass plenty of unpleasant or boring sights, maybe a hundred of them for every one worth seeing. Nobody would call that a good use of an afternoon, yet it’s exactly how I use a lot of my screens.

Why digital minimalism doesn’t fit me

I’ve read a fair number of self-help books on this, and a lot of them push some version of digital minimalism. Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism is the best known: declutter, uninstall the apps, unsubscribe from things, and add back only what earns its place.

My view is that this doesn’t work for everyone, and it doesn’t work for me. These technologies, platforms and applications are part of my career and my lifestyle. One way or another I need App X and App Y. What I don’t need is to have them open all the time.

So removing the tools isn’t the answer for me. Changing how I reach for them is.

What I mean by digital intentionality

What I’m after is a trick, or more accurately a mental model, that makes sure I have the right intention before I pick up a device or open an application. It has to scale: even with more than ten devices around me, I want something that keeps me out of the rabbit hole and away from the infinity pool of content. I think the right term for this is digital intentionality.

The difference from minimalism is where the rule sits. Minimalism puts the rule on the inventory: fewer apps, fewer accounts, fewer devices. Intentionality puts the rule on the moment of use: the need comes first, then the device, and when the need is met, the device goes away.

What I want to be doing by the end of 2021

These are the concrete habits I’m working towards this year.

• My phone is a reaction-based device. Someone called me, so I call them back. I need to show my ID, so I open that app. I need a photo of something, so I take the phone out. The need must come first, before I use it.
• When I open a laptop, I already know why. I need the keyboard to write something. I’m booking a hotel. I’m reading a book and taking notes. I’m learning a new skill or technology. I do the task I decided on, and when I’m done, I close the laptop.
• Heavy work goes to the desktop or a remote server. For more compute-intensive tasks I use my desktop or a remote server. When the task is finished, I shut it down.
• Games get my full attention. If I want to play, I use my Xbox or my desktop. No browsing the internet or fiddling with my phone while I’m at it; I focus on the game.
• Movies and series are a choice, not a default. When there’s a good movie or TV series on, I watch it with full intention. If it’s bad by the 10% mark, I abandon it. The same rule applies to books and audiobooks.
• Waiting time goes to reading. When I’m out and have to wait, I take out my Kindle or a physical book and do some light reading instead of reaching for the phone.

There will be more as the year goes on, but they all serve one principle: the devices should serve me, not the other way around.

I already know where this will strain. My work laptop and phone are reactive by design: Teams and email notifications arrive whether or not I had a need, and ignoring them isn’t an option in my job. My plan there is to keep notifications on during work hours and treat checking them as the task, then close the apps at the end of the day rather than pretend the rule applies cleanly. The 10% abandon rule has a cost too, because some books and series are slow burners that only pay off later. When someone I trust tells me something is worth pushing through, I’ll give it more room, but that’s the exception, not the default.

Why willpower alone won’t cut it

Naval Ravikant put the imbalance better than I can (it’s collected in The Almanack of Naval Ravikant):

The modern struggle: Lone individuals summoning inhuman willpower, fasting, meditating, and exercising… Up against armies of scientists and statisticians weaponizing abundant food, screens, and medicine into junk food, clickbait news, infinite porn, endless games, and addictive drugs.

That’s why I’m treating this as a set of defaults rather than a test of discipline. The products on the other side are designed by large teams whose job is to keep me engaged, so relying on willpower in the moment is a losing strategy. If I’ve already decided what each device is for, I don’t have to win that argument with myself every time I pick it up.

The phones already help with this if you let them. iOS has Screen Time for usage reports, app limits and scheduled downtime, and Android has Digital Wellbeing for the same job. I’ll use them to back up the rules, starting with Downtime from 10pm so the phone stays a reaction-only device overnight.

One of the first places I’m applying this is the autoplay “next” button on video platforms, and I’ll cover that in the next post: Digital Intentionality: Don’t Click That Next Button.

The takeaway

These technologies are here to stay. You can’t just go rogue and live in the mountains; like it or not, they’re part of who we are as a society now. So for 2021 I’m not trying to use less technology. I’m trying to make sure that every time I pick something up, I know why, and that I’m the one in control of my time, not some machine learning algorithm deciding what I should see next.

If you want to try the same thing, start with one device. Write down what it’s for in a sentence, and notice every time you reach for it without a reason that fits.