105 hours: No time for the internet
I use a set of tactics and principles to manage my time. I call it 105 hours.
It helps me allocate the 105 hours I have in the week.
Today, we spend many of those hours on the internet.
But what if we chose not to?
A day without the internet
Sunday.
I wake up, freshen up, and run at the lake; I have no phone on me.
I then sit on my computer to write; it's not connected to the internet. No distractions.
We head out to visit my in-laws for lunch. We buy a roasted chicken on the way and spend time together talking and eating. There are no phones on the table with us.
Back home, it's free time, and I play video games. I choose some game from the 90s', such as SNES's Zelda or Super Mario World.
I exercised yesterday and today is a rest day. I pick up a book and read until dinner time.
My wife and I have dinner in the dining room: the TV is off, and there are no phones around; we chat about the upcoming week.
We now hang out on the living room sofa; I'm reading a book while she catches up with her phone. Later, we're both reading.
My sleeper alarm goes off: time to go to bed.
What do we do without the internet?
The Sunday outlined above is not a 'digital sabbath' or a vacation day; it's a typical Sunday.
I've emphasized what I didn't do by not being connected to the internet, but just as important is what I did: exercise, write, spend quality time with my family, read books, and play video games.
We all have 15 hours on Sunday to do the same things.
But then, why don't we? Where does the time go instead?
0 hours for the internet
I have 35 to 50 hours of personal time a week, and I want to spend them in fulfilling personal activities.
I now accept using the internet isn't one of those.
So I don't use it.
Like many things in life, the internet costs little money but a lot of time.
The cost of using the internet is not in dollars but in hours.
But all my time is already spoken for – many times over.
I'm deliberate about spending my time on what's most important and aligned with my values, and the internet no longer makes the cut.
What do I mean by not using the internet?
When I say I don't use the internet, after some blank stares, I get asked, "what do you mean you don't use the internet?"
Here's what it means:
- not using social media such as Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and alike
- not reading the news, including newspaper websites like NYT, magazines like Atlantic, or any TV news channel websites
- not reading news aggregators such as Reddit or Hacker News
- not reading articles online that others have posted on blogs and pages (such as this one!)
- not browsing the internet or visiting any websites
- not watching YouTube or other videos, or Twitch and other streaming
- not reading Wikipedia
- not listening to any Podcasts
- not sending or receiving any phone messages, texting, or WhatsApp
- not checking or replying to email
It's not about using it with parsimony, with "focus time" blocks and limits. It's about not using it at all.
But what are the exceptions? And how about work?
Exceptions: when I do use the internet
You're reading this article on the internet, so I must have used the internet to publish it, right?
Not using the internet is an instrumental decision to become a more effective person and have a better life, not a dogmatic decision to be a Luddite, so I use it sometimes.
Work
I work remotely and have a work computer that is connected to the Internet so that I can use tools for messaging (Slack), office (Google Workspace), task tracking (Atlassian), and a handful of others.
My work computer is restricted to work activities on the work tools above.
Saturday morning connections
Every Saturday morning (and Saturday mornings only), I will plug my personal computer into the internet, check emails and texts from friends, and do any tasks that require the internet, such as publishing my writing.
It often takes only a few minutes a week, but it can sometimes take longer if I send a friend a long voice message, for example.
Then I'll disconnect and only reconnect the following Saturday morning.
Meeting friends and mentees
I meet a lot of friends in person and on zoom.
I set up several periodically scheduled meetings with friends and mentees; we set up a calendar event as recurring and then show up when the time comes to meet.
For one-off conversations, I have a calendly link that my friends use to find time on my calendar, but it's used sparingly.
Wife helps with household chores
My wife handles household activities and has no plans to be disconnected from the internet, which is a big reason why I can.
She handles banks, doctor appointments, family meetings, invites to meet family friends and myriad other household things.
If she didn't do those essential things for us, I'd do them on my Saturday morning block. Luckily for me, she does.
A philosophy of technology use
Different people require different solutions, but Cal Newport makes the case that we all need a philosophy of technology use, and he proposes one that he calls Digital Minimalism in his book of the same name.
[..] what all of us who struggle with these issues need — is a philosophy of technology use, something that covers from the ground up which digital tools we allow into our life, for what reasons, and under what constraints. In the absence of this introspection, we’ll be left struggling in a whirlwind of addictive and appealing cyber-trinkets, vainly hoping that the right mix of ad hoc hacks will save us.
As I mentioned in the introduction, I have one such philosophy to propose:
Digital Minimalism: A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.
By working backward from their deep values to their technology choices, digital minimalists transform these innovations from a source of distraction into tools to support a life well lived. By doing so, they break the spell that has made so many people feel like they’re losing control to their screens.
Newport, Cal. Digital Minimalism (p. 28). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Not using the internet is another philosophy of technology use, or it's an application of Digital Minimalism in using technology in a way that's most aligned with my values.
The internet carries an opportunity cost
I remember a conversation with a friend a few years after I stopped using Twitter. We were having dinner at Fogo de Chão when I mentioned I no longer used Twitter, and he diplomatically commented, "I see what you mean, but Twitter is useful for me."
Twitter was useful for me, too! Nearly all modern technologies are useful, and most are on the internet.
But we can't choose everything, so I choose the things that most nurture my values.
When we choose to use the internet, we're choosing not to do something else.
Most valuable things in life require time; it's what life is made of.
When we complain we wish we had more time to exercise, spend time with our kids, or learn to play the guitar, we're absolutely right! Yes, we were given this limited allotment of time, but we want more!
But that's not possible. The only way forward is to spend the time we were given deliberately.
After all, 105 hours a week is a significant chunk of time.
Let's not waste it.