Why and how to avoid constant connectivity in an "always on" world

"You could fill any arbitrary number of hours with what feels to be productive work", writes author and productivity expert Cal Newport.

Yet, unless you're Elon Musk, doing that will leave you stressed, overworked and ultimately unproductive.

As Newport and other experts have argued, the reason is that constant connectivity deprives us of three crucial elements of restorative downtime: recharging, conversation, and creativity. Let's have a brief look at each of these elements.

First, recharging our capacity for (focused) cognitive work requires uninterrupted freedom from directing our attention towards work. According to what scientists call "attention restoration theory", spending our evenings and weekends working – or even handling some email in between – will rob your directed attention centers of the downtime they need for recharging themselves.

Second, detaching from work and digital technology allows us to get more conversational downtime. In "Digital Minimalism", Newport references MIT professor Sherry Turkle, who posits that there are two modes of interaction. One mode is "conversation", which includes face-to-face interactions in the real world. The other is "connection", which is about the low-bandwidth interactions of online social life, such as social media and messaging. As it turns outs, we need the rich social interaction from real-world, face-to-face encounters in order to thrive.

Third, giving our conscious mind a break from work triggers our unconscious mind to work creatively on things that are important to us. According to "unconscious thought theory", the unconscious parts of our mind are especially well suited for solving problems that involve large amounts of information and multiple vague constraints.

Next, let's explore some of the best practices that Newport and others recommend to get more restorative downtime. We'll set up the foundation with some simple ways for effectively calling it a day and dealing with digital distractions.

Have a ritual to "call it a day"

One of the cornerstones of Newport's productivity system is his habit of systematically moving from work mode to non-work mode. The respective practice is his shutdown ritual.

"If you strictly follow this shutdown ritual", he writes in the "Time Block Planner", you'll soon discover that not only are you working harder when you work, but your time after work is more meaningful and restorative than ever before". 

In other words, if you want to build a foundation for truly recharging, conversational and creative downtime, it's vital to give your brain some time without input from work in the evening. So, at whatever time your weekly plan and workload permit, perform Newport's shutdown ritual. Start with going through these three steps:

1. Take a last look at your email inbox. Ensure there is nothing left that requires an urgent response before the day ends.

2. Transfer all the tasks and ideas you have captured over the day to your official to-do list. If you have a designated place for collecting ideas, put them there.

3. Skim through your official to-do list and the next few days of your calendar.

These simple steps ensure that you don't miss any deadlines or appointments, which is vital for enabling your mind to move from work mode to non-work mode.

On top of these, Newport recommends two extra steps. First, come up with a rough plan in your head for the next day. Second, make a mental statement to yourself as you complete the ritual (such as "shutdown complete"). Both provide an extra signal to your mind that there is nothing left to worry about at work.

Defuse your biggest weapon of "mass distraction"

Performing a shutdown ritual is a excellent first step toward better time off. However, doing this is necessary, but insufficient if you want to build a solid foundation for truly restorative downtime.

Here’s why. While we have more leisure time than 50 years ago, there is an important twist." Leisure has never been less relaxing, mostly because of the disintermediating effects of our screens", says Prof. Ashley Whillans of Harvard Business School.

Whillans has popularized a concept known as time confetti: As our leisure time gets fractured by digital technology, we use our free time for tiny bits of easy, fast distraction, or even occasional work. Thus, our free time only comes in tiny snippets. This time confetti makes us experience time famine, or feeling hungry for time. Like in a hunger famine, we're constantly triaging and stressed – even in our leisure time.

One major factor contributing to time confetti is the smartphone, our biggest "weapon of mass distraction". As Cal Newport argues in "Digital Minimalism", this is due to two reasons. First, smartphones are ubiquitous. Since we always carry them with us, they turn every moment into an opportunity to check our email, other messages, or (social media) feeds. Second, smartphones are incredibly distracting devices: Some of the most ingenious attention traps – such as "the slot machine action of swiping down to refresh a feed, or alarmed notification badges” – are smartphone-only. 

If you want to avoid time confetti and get more restorative downtime, you need to defuse that weapon. Here are the three tips that give you the most bang for the buck.

1. Don't carry your office in your back pocket. Stop using email and group chat on your (private) smartphone, and train yourself to do so from your computer only.

2. Turn off all notifications except from people. After you've done that, later reactivate those that you really can't live without.

3. Have boundaries for when (not) to use your smartphone. The Center for Humane Technology has several helpful tips for pulling that off. The two that I use every day are device-free meals and a device-free bedroom. Both are game changers.

Lastly, here's a pro tip: Remove social media from your phone. Using social media from your computer not only is feasible, but it also hugely improves the quality of your downtime.

If that’s too rigorous, apply the Pareto principle to the social media you use: Start with determining which social media have a 1) substantially negative impact, 2) substantially positive impact, or 3) little impact on your most important professional and personal goals. Then, stop using those the first category, consider scheduling the ones in the second, and try a social media fast for the ones in the third.

Now, what does all of that leave us with regarding truly restorative downtime? As it turns out, it all comes down to two types of activities: Being with others and being alone. If that sounds confusing, bear with me for a minute and continue reading.

Go for "conversation" instead of "connection"

As I've explained above, there are two interaction modes between humans in the modern world.

One is "conversation", which includes face-to-face interactions in the real world. The other is "connection", which includes the low-bandwidth interactions of online social life, such as social media and messaging. While connection is today's increasingly prevalent form of interaction, our Paleolithic brains have a basic need for conversation, according to MIT professor Sherry Turkle.

In “Digital Minimalism”, Newport summarizes Turkle’s take as follows: "Conversation is the good stuff; it's what we crave as humans and what provides us with the sense of community and belonging necessary to thrive. Connection, on the other hand, though appealing in the moment, provides very little of what we need". 

In other words, the low-bandwidth interactions of online social life do not satisfy our basic need for interaction. An overreliance on connection robs us of conversation – the very kind of interaction that is vital for getting the most out of our downtime.

This is due to two reasons: First, connection subverts conversation: During real-world interactions, it gets increasingly difficult to resist checking our phones, which reduces the quality of the real-world conversations that we have. Second, connection crowds out healthier types of interaction – without us even realizing it. Spending multiple hours each day on social media and texting eats away at our time for real-world interaction. Much like subsiding on a diet of burgers, fries and milkshakes, that's satiating and satisfying in the moment – but it doesn't provide us with the social nutrients that our brain really needs.

A better way is what Newport calls "conversation-centric communication". As you might have guessed, conversation is the only form of interaction that counts toward maintaining relationships in that approach. Here are two simple tips for adopting it:

1. Shift most of the social interactions in your free time to nourishing, real-world conversation. Instead of spending hours on low-bandwidth interactions of online social life, double down on face-to-face meetings, phone calls, or video calls whenever possible. 

2. Assign a purely logistical role to digital communication tools such as social media and messaging apps. Use them to set up and arrange conversation or efficiently transfer practical information, for example on a location or time. 

In a nutshell, "conversation-centric communication" is about not treating connection as an alternative to conversation, but as a supporter of it. While that shift might appear difficult at first, it quickly and fundamentally transforms our social life. As per Newport: "It won't take many walks with a friend, or pleasantly meandering phone calls, before you begin to wonder why you previously felt it was so important to turn away from the person sitting right in front of you”. 

Apart from "connection", the other type of truly restorative downtime activities involves being alone. Let’s explore why and how.

Spend some time alone

Solitude is a subjective state in which your mind is free from input from other minds. It requires us to move past reacting to information created by other people – and focus instead on our own thoughts and experiences.

It's not necessarily about being all by yourself: As Newport writes in “Digital Minimalism”, "[…] you can enjoy solitude in a crowded coffee shop or on a subway car, so long as your mind is left to grapple only with its own thoughts". Conversely, "[…] solitude can be banished in even the quietest setting if you allow input from other minds to intrude. In addition to interactions with other people, such inputs can also take the form of reading a book, listening to a podcast, watching TV, or performing just about any activity that might draw your attention to a smartphone screen".

While all of these activities are absolutely fine per se, spending close to zero time alone with your thoughts – which is known as "solitude deprivation" – rids us of experiences that make up one of the most important aspects of downtime: As Blaise Pascal famously wrote centuries ago, "all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. "

As recently as the 1990s, solitude deprivation was difficult to achieve", Newport continues in "Digital Minimalism": "There were just too many situations in everyday life that forced you to be alone with your thoughts, whether you wanted to or not – waiting in line, crammed into a crowded subway car, walking down the street, working on your yard". With the advent of digital technology, all of this changed dramatically. We're constantly around other people, and even when we go to great lengths to detach from digital technology outside of work, we're hardly ever alone.

However, even in the modern world, there are many ways to find solitude. One of the best sources of solitude is one that has been proposed by leading thinkers for centuries: Walking.

The 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was known to do most of his thinking on foot, taking long walks through the Swiss Alps to wind down and be creative. One of his aphorisms succinctly captures his conviction that strolling is vital for having good ideas: "Only thoughts reached by walking have value."

As explained above, giving our conscious mind a break from work triggers our unconscious mind to work on things that are important to us. That's why walking is a great way to solve problems in our professional (and private) life creatively. By taking a walk, we can purposefully spark those sudden flashes of inspiration that most of us have experienced when taking a shower or brushing our teeth.

The most challenging part of regular leisure walks is making time. Drawing upon his own experience as a busy professor, writer and father, Newport offers three ideas for pulling that off.

1. Leisure walks are a great way to end (or start) your workday. If you're commuting, walk a part of the way – by getting on or off the tram or car at a nice walking distance from your office, say. If you're working from home, have a walk around the block to start or end your day.

2. Talk to your partner or family about your motivation for taking leisure walks. Tell them about how it helps you detach from work and develop creative ideas to your most important challenges.

3. Broaden your definition of" good weather". A Scandinavian proverb says: "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes." So if you dress appropriately, you can enjoy the benefits of leisure walks even on cold, rainy, and snowy days.

TL;DR

1) Constant connectivity deprives us of three crucial elements of restorative downtime: recharging, conversation, and creativity

2) To restore your ability to do cognitive work in the evenings and during weekends, have a shutdown ritual to systematically call it a day

3) If you want to get truly restorative downtime, defuse your smartphone, that biggest weapon of "mass distraction" – and be very deliberate about how you use social media during your leisure time

4) The most restorative types of leisure are about being with others and being alone. To get the former, prefer face-to-face interactions in the real world ("conversation") to textual, non-interactive digital communication ("connection")

5) To get the latter, make time for solitude – so that your mind can grapple with its own thoughts and get creative. One of the best way to get solitude in the modern world is walking, which is feasible even on the busiest of schedules

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Until next week,
Christian