Disconnect to Reconnect: How I Am Embracing a Digital Declutter This Summer

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When I asked our agency's technology support person how long it would take for him to update my laptop and phone, he couldn't give me a specific date.

"Do you have a week or so where you would be okay without them?"

I felt my chest tighten. I had several unfinished tasks. Maybe sensing my anxiety, he said I could drop off the devices in July instead.

Where does this worry come from? Technology has created a seamless experience between me and everyone on the Internet. With a smartphone in your pocket, the whole world is available to you, seconds and a swipe away. There's no easy on/off button.

As Erin Loechner, author of The Opt Out, noted¹, today's technologies lack the starts and stops you typically associate with activities in the physical world.

Getting Away

Being an educator in a connected world, the challenge is getting away from work. We are constant learners, eager to discover what might change the way we teach, coach, or lead.

But when do we get to not be educators? Recently, during a medical check-up, the doctor asked what I enjoyed doing for fun. "Uhm...gardening?" I answered. But I wouldn't have wanted to share images of my backyard, with nettles poking through our shadowbox fence or bare garden areas begging for more mulch. If I didn’t have Twitter or LinkedIn capturing my attention, would my backyard look better?

This is why I am engaging in a digital declutter next month (July 2024). It's recommended by computer scientist Cal Newport in his book Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World (Penguin, 2019).

A digital declutter involves three steps:

1. Set aside a 30-day period where you will take a break from optional technologies in your life.

2. Explore and rediscover activities and behaviors that you find satisfying and meaningful during the break.

3. Reintroduce optional technologies into your life, starting with a blank slate at the end of the 30-day period (p. 60).

"Optional technologies" are any tools, such as apps and websites, that are "delivered through a computer screen or a mobile phone and are meant to either entertain, inform, or connect you" (p. 64).

Exceptions to the Rule

Newport provides several examples of exceptions to this rule. For example, a communications director might need to check and post on social media. He clarifies that technology should not be put aside if "its temporary removal would harm or significantly disrupt the daily operation of your professional or personal life" (p. 64).

Here’s my list of optional technologies for my digital declutter:

• Twitter (a.k.a. X)

• LinkedIn

• Substack (this newsletter)

• AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Pi)

One technology I am keeping is email. It's a core tool I use for communicating with schools, colleagues, friends, and family. But email can also be problematic, especially if checked too often.

In these situations, Newport recommends using operating procedures. You specify how and when you use a particular technology to maintain critical uses without defaulting to unrestricted access (p. 66).

To address email, I plan to employ the following rules:

1. Check only once per day.

2. Have a list of prepared tasks to complete within email.

3. Keep the session to one hour or less.

Not a Digital Detox

To be clear, I'm not simply hitting a temporary pause on optional technologies. This is referred to as a “digital detox”. As explained in the third step of the declutter process, I will be intentional about what I allow back into my life after 30 days.

To ensure discernment during this third step, Newport suggests three criteria for evaluating each technology as it is reintroduced:

1. Does this technology directly support something that I deeply value?

2. Is this technology the best way to support this value?

3. How am I going to use this technology going forward to maximize its value and minimize its harms? (p. 75-76)

In other words, I might not return to some technologies after the 30 days. This feels real!

For example, I can already sense the conflict with Twitter. I have over 10,000 followers there. On that fact alone, one might assume it would be silly to remove that technology from my life. But do those numbers translate to readers of my newsletter? Or largely positive conversations with other educators? Is there a trade-off between my attention there and the quality of my writing and my work here? These are questions I will explore at the end of my 30 days. (Side note: Cal Newport is not on social media and is not shy about sharing his belief that others should get off it too.)

Final Thoughts

When I first read Digital Minimalism a few years ago, I quietly dismissed some of Newport's ideas as too extreme. Just drop social media?

Now, as I reread parts of the book, I see he is not advocating for a removal of connection from one's life. Rather, he’s recommending a reconnection with what matters: yes, our work, but also a life outside of education—our families, our friends, our passions, and interests. This happens first through disconnection to understand what has our attention and the associated trade-offs.

There’s much more to this process that I didn’t include in this post, including how it relates specifically to literacy leadership. If you care to follow along, I will be posting how my digital declutter is going in this discussion thread.

Related Resources

• One thing I will be doing instead of social media is letting people know about my new course, Instructional Leadership Operating System. It’s a twelve week process to help leaders get into classrooms, support teaching and learning, and improve schoolwide instruction. This is the step-by-step approach I used as a principal for 12 years. It’s on presale now for only $99 - but only for a few days.

• In this short YouTube video, Cal Newport explains the difference between a digital detox and digital declutter.

• Books related to this topic that I have read and recommend include Hamlet’s Blackberry by William Power (h/t Regie Routman), Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle, and Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (affiliate links).

Take care,

Matt

P.S. Want to join me in this 30-day experiment? You can order Digital Minimalism here (affiliate link) or wherever you prefer to buy your books. We can share our insights from this experience in the discussion thread below.

1. https://gregmckeown.com/podcast/episode/the-hidden-power-of-opting-out-from-technology-with-erin-loechner-part-1/