Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

by Cal Newport

at the beginning of the winter (January),

Winter starts in December bro

at the beginning of summer (early May).

Nope. May is end of spring

I’m preferential toward seasonal timing as I’m an academic, and this matches ...

Ah, that does explain your lack of understanding of seasons. Those term times date back to when they were based on the ecclisiastic schedule, they got switched to seasonal names to pretend they were secular. Older universities and schools in the UK and Ireland still use the religious names

Some people like to keep simple scorecards throughout the week of how often they stuck with the rules specified by these habits, and review the scorecard as part of this reflection. The goal here is twofold. First, knowing that you will soon review your performance makes you more likely in the moment to stick with your habits.

Nope. Just makes me anxious and self-loathing

If you’re consistently failing to execute a given habit, regardless of your efforts to cajole yourself into action, there might be an issue with the habit itself that makes it difficult to satisfy.

That issue is my ADHD

The weekly leisure planning process itself requires only a handful of minutes,

Every planner person says that, but it always seems to take me several hours

Early in 2010, a trio of Germans with backgrounds in sociology, technology, and market research posted online a document titled “Das Slow Media Manifest.” The English translation reads: “The Slow Media Manifesto.”

I really dont think that translation was necessary

As noted in an earlier chapter, Henry David Thoreau’s reaction to the telegraph boom that followed Morse’s 1844 demonstration was to remark that we’re so eager to build a line between Maine and Texas that we never stopped to ask why these two states needed to be connected in the first place. Though dated in its particulars, this same sentiment applies well to our current age of social media and smartphones. First Facebook, then the iPhone: compulsive communicating and connecting—supported by mysterious, almost magical innovations in radio modulation and fiber-optic routing—swept our culture before anyone had the presence of mind to step back and re-ask Thoreau’s fundamental question: To what end?

Because the closeted queer kid in Nowhere, Alabama desperately needs the ability to connect with other people like them

For those who are interested, the central insight of the FI 2.0 movement is that if you can radically reduce your living expenses, you gain two advantages: (1) you can save money at a much faster pace (a 50 to 70 percent savings rate is common), and (2) you don’t have to save as much to become independent, as the expenses you need to meet are lower. If you need only $30,000 take-home pay to live comfortably, for example, then saving $750,000 in a low-cost index fund will likely cover these expenses (with inflation adjustments) for decades. Now imagine that you’re a young couple with two good salaries that generate $100,000 in take-home pay each year. Because you need only $30,000 to live on, you can save $70,000 a year. Assuming a 5 to 6 percent annual growth rate, you’d hit your target in eight to nine years. If you start this in your twenties, you’ll end up financially independent by your late thirties. Naturally, much of the FI 2.0 literature focuses on the argument that these levels of frugality are less drastic than you might imagine.

They are insane and don't account for health problems or, frankly, general curiosity. Or pesach grocery shopping