It’s a well-known fact that smartphones are pretty good at distracting you. If you’re reading this, I doubt you need any introduction to the risks associated with tech overuse.

One thing that I rarely hear about is how addictive it can be to try to search for the best solution there is for solving that problem. Once you get into digital minimalism, you discover that not only the tools you were using were wasting your time, but how much better and powerful they can be for your workflow. And once you start optimizing, it becomes really tempting to spend more time making your system perfect than actually using it.

In my case, I became completely addicted to learning linux so that I could have a system that was more “suckless”, “simple”, “performant”, and “minimal”. Then I went on to degoogling my phone and only installing open source software on it. Social media blockers and minimalist launchers. Searching for the best mp3 players so I would not depend on services like spotify. At the end of the day I spent much more time perfecting my “tech system” than actually using it for the work it’s intended to do.

Looking at other people in these communities, I realized that I’m not alone in that problem. It makes sense when you think of it. It is not much different than people who leave smoking cigarettes only to replace it by a vape. Leaving the original source of addiction, you feel like you’ve already won the battle, until you realize that if you’re not careful, you’ll carry on with the same habits, only in a different shape. Configuring and improving your system becomes the new endless feed scrolling.

The search for the “perfect system” becomes its own form of distraction

Solution: using tools as tools

Many good things suffer from turning themselves into philosophies. There’s nothing wrong per se about following a particular philosophy. But pursuing them as their own means without some questioning often leads to more harm than good. This is definitely the case when it comes to minimalism, digital minimalism, and productivity.

If you want to start being more conscious about your tech use, stop spending so much time searching the best way to do it. The reality is that for each person at each particular time, according to their own particular goals, there will be one combination of tools that will work best for them. There is no amount of reading and watching digital minimalism content that will improve your digital health by themselves.

Here is a little thing I read that helped me change my approach and improve my tech usage while actually getting things done.

“A complex system that works has evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system built from scratch won’t work.” - John Gall

Don’t try to solve every single problem in your tech usage at once. Don’t oversearch the best options to make your system perfect. Choose one tool that does what you want and try it out for a while. Only get another when you need it. That’s it.