00:00:00
today I've compiled the core eight
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things that I've done to have a very
00:00:04
focused minimal uh mobile phone now I
00:00:06
will mention uh this will work on an
00:00:09
iPhone I mean some of the things I'll
00:00:10
say are somewhat iPhone specific but you
00:00:12
can easily replicate this on really
00:00:14
anything so you can opt for something
00:00:16
like a punk which takes care of almost
00:00:18
everything for you by default but it's
00:00:20
going to be extremely limited uh you can
00:00:21
use like an Android device with a custom
00:00:23
rom you can use stock Android you can
00:00:25
use an iOS device um I personally feel
00:00:28
like my minimal workflow is most
00:00:30
developed on an iOS device and it's the
00:00:33
most mature and so it's the one that I'm
00:00:35
going to show all of you but a lot of
00:00:36
the things on this will easily work on
00:00:38
the other devices as well first why
00:00:40
minimal phones I think that there is a
00:00:43
massive issue with focus in our world
00:00:44
today and I think that any type of steps
00:00:47
people can take to reclaim their focus
00:00:49
is a net gain on society now the first
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thing uh is actually the phone itself it
00:00:53
starts with what you're purchasing now
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uh some of you probably already have
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your phone and might still uh be looking
00:00:59
to do things after the fact but if
00:01:01
you're in search of a new device do
00:01:03
think about what phone you're buying
00:01:05
because that can easily influence some
00:01:06
of the things that you're going to be
00:01:07
doing smaller screen real estate means
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that when you're web browsing you're
00:01:10
going to be exposed to less images when
00:01:12
you're on social media you're going to
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be exposed to less things all at once I
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personally am a huge fan of small
00:01:17
devices and I am very pissed off at
00:01:19
Apple for uh discontinuing the 13 mini
00:01:22
uh this is a 13 mini right here it is
00:01:24
not only the cheapest iPhone 13 but it
00:01:27
is also what I consider to be the most
00:01:29
minimal and it's all that you need for a
00:01:31
phone uh I think obviously form factor
00:01:34
wise the pun is going to take it home
00:01:36
here and then you have the ridiculously
00:01:38
massive freaking huge phones like the
00:01:40
ferone and the pixel 6 which I think are
00:01:43
just ridiculous it's insane how big
00:01:45
these phones are and when you put up an
00:01:47
iPhone to it there's like a whole inch
00:01:49
inch and a half above it which is just
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insane the second thing is also kind of
00:01:54
an obvious thing but I think a lot of
00:01:55
people skip over it for some reason and
00:01:57
it's removing apps you don't need I look
00:01:59
at people's home screen and they'll have
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you know like dozens hundreds of
00:02:02
applications get it down to just your
00:02:04
bare necessities and start deleting
00:02:06
things you don't need if you're
00:02:07
undecided just delete it and then if you
00:02:09
need it again see if you can use it on a
00:02:12
different device like a laptop see if
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you can open it in your web browser see
00:02:16
if you actually need the application now
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I generally have a very limited
00:02:20
selection of applications and they're
00:02:23
just the bare necessities of things I
00:02:24
need on a phone when I'm out and about
00:02:26
and then if I need something more I can
00:02:28
always go to a computer or something
00:02:30
like that so again reduce apps first and
00:02:33
on that note use web apps when you can
00:02:35
for example crypy down here is a web app
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the next thing and this is a pretty
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obvious one is your home screen I like
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to keep my home screen as clean as
00:02:43
possible so for example you have just a
00:02:45
browser a messenger some notes and then
00:02:49
some other uh communication down on the
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bottom left uh the way I actually
00:02:53
decided what goes on the bottom is
00:02:54
either if it's something I need access
00:02:56
to throughout the day for example like
00:02:58
crypy or if it's something that I want
00:03:00
to see badge notifications for which in
00:03:03
my case is going to be my email and a
00:03:05
couple other viip providers that I use
00:03:08
in addition to Signal which is my core
00:03:10
messenger anything else is not on my
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home screen because I don't need it to
00:03:14
be and if you swipe over I actually
00:03:16
really really wish Apple let you remove
00:03:18
the app Library I don't like the app
00:03:20
library now you might be wondering why
00:03:22
you might not keep things on your home
00:03:24
screen and the reason for that I feel
00:03:26
when you access a home screen with all
00:03:28
of your applications you're now put in a
00:03:30
position where you have the ability uh
00:03:33
to choose to open anything that might
00:03:35
look appealing and interesting to you
00:03:37
whereas if I go down to this home screen
00:03:39
there's nothing here I have to actively
00:03:41
and you'll see later how I get to my
00:03:43
applications because I don't go through
00:03:45
here I never go to this screen this
00:03:47
screen is bad news because now you're
00:03:49
here and it's like oh hey Mastadon I can
00:03:50
check Mastadon real quick oh hey I can
00:03:52
quickly open my email why not oh hey I
00:03:55
can quickly check my RSS feed oh like
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these are all the things that might go
00:03:58
on when you get access access to a big
00:04:00
screen with all of your applications
00:04:01
like this so I like to avoid this Al
00:04:03
together I wish Apple let you remove
00:04:05
this app library because I think it's
00:04:07
stupid anyway like this is just a stupid
00:04:09
feature changed my mind uh I don't
00:04:11
understand why Apple did this why Apple
00:04:13
wants to sort your apps for you in this
00:04:16
unmethodical I don't know I just don't
00:04:18
understand the screen whatsoever but
00:04:20
especially from a minimalism perspective
00:04:22
I wish you could turn it off with that
00:04:23
said I just have to actively avoid that
00:04:25
screen and that is the core reason why I
00:04:27
don't want apps on my home screen
00:04:29
because otherwise I'll just see all the
00:04:30
apps and just be mindlessly checking
00:04:32
things throughout the day now on the
00:04:34
note of the home screen I quickly
00:04:35
mentioned navigation and that's where
00:04:37
the magic kind of happens on my phone so
00:04:40
on my phone all of my navigation is done
00:04:43
through Spotlight now for those who
00:04:45
don't know what I'm talking about
00:04:46
Spotlight is when you just scroll down
00:04:48
and you can search for anything on your
00:04:49
phone so I disabled pretty much
00:04:52
everything in my Spotlight search with
00:04:53
the exception of I believe contacts
00:04:57
applications and then there was
00:04:59
something else but it's almost nothing
00:05:01
pretty much the only thing I use
00:05:02
Spotlight for all things considered is
00:05:04
searching for applications so what this
00:05:06
looks like if I go to my lock screen let
00:05:10
me unlock this so if I open my phone a
00:05:13
lot of times I never even go to my home
00:05:15
screen if your phone's unlocked you just
00:05:17
swipe down this is on so I just unlocked
00:05:20
the phone with face ID right you just
00:05:21
swipe down and then you just open signal
00:05:24
directly from here and then you click
00:05:27
go boom Signal's open now let's say
00:05:30
signal doesn't connect because your
00:05:32
vpn's not working you just swipe down
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swipe down again and then we open ivpn
00:05:38
right from
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there okay I fixed signal now I want to
00:05:44
open Simple login so we're going to open
00:05:47
or I can even go to Mastadon whatever it
00:05:49
doesn't matter I can go open Simple
00:05:51
login boom and so the reason why I like
00:05:54
this is you have to actively know in
00:05:57
your head
00:05:58
before you go into your Spotlight search
00:06:01
what you're going to do which is by far
00:06:03
the most focused way to use a device
00:06:05
rather than being given a plethora of
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options every time you go to your home
00:06:09
screen and then from there you choose
00:06:10
what you want to do because if there's a
00:06:12
single thing that distracts you you're
00:06:14
going to go for the distraction and
00:06:15
before you know it you're going to waste
00:06:17
5 minutes going down a rabbit hole
00:06:18
versus Spotlight search only navigation
00:06:21
is the most single track way to use your
00:06:22
device where it's only uh in your
00:06:25
control and you get to choose exactly
00:06:27
what you're going to open I think
00:06:28
Spotlight is by far the the most
00:06:29
powerful tool that you can repurpose for
00:06:31
this and it has done wonders for me I
00:06:35
mean now it really is just I open an app
00:06:37
and then normally I'm done because you
00:06:39
normally only have to open your phone
00:06:40
for one thing generally speaking but if
00:06:43
you have tons of applications it's easy
00:06:45
to get sidetracked so that's my
00:06:46
navigation which is number four now
00:06:49
number five is going to be downtime and
00:06:51
screen time so I think screen time is a
00:06:54
very powerful feature for those who
00:06:56
don't know what this is you can
00:06:57
essentially set app limits for specific
00:07:00
applications or categories of
00:07:02
applications and you can also set a
00:07:03
downtime and a downtime will do
00:07:05
something like at 10:00 uh all
00:07:07
applications except your main messenger
00:07:10
are completely turned off and this is
00:07:13
very powerful I use this a lot I set up
00:07:16
a pin code so that it's very inefficient
00:07:18
for me to use my device at certain hours
00:07:20
I normally block off I believe it's 10
00:07:22
to 8 so at 10: p.m. through 8:00 a.m. uh
00:07:26
by downtime is enabled which corresponds
00:07:29
with the Sleep Focus mode on my phone
00:07:32
and that way uh there's really almost no
00:07:33
phone usage at least in theory during
00:07:35
that time period so I think this is very
00:07:38
powerful and if you already have if
00:07:40
you've already done everything so far
00:07:41
this is just going to add a lot more
00:07:43
power to your workflow I mean you're
00:07:44
already you already bought yourself an
00:07:47
overall minimal device you already
00:07:48
reduced the applications on your device
00:07:51
you already minimized your home screen
00:07:53
you already changed to a better
00:07:54
navigation system so you're not just
00:07:56
switching between apps and kind of
00:07:57
multitasking all the time and also if
00:08:00
you implement this then even if you
00:08:01
single track applications if you spend
00:08:03
too much time in one application that
00:08:06
tends to peque your interest you can set
00:08:07
a time limit for that and so you can
00:08:09
only for example let's say you game you
00:08:11
have one game let's say you have sidoku
00:08:12
on your phone but you spend too much
00:08:14
time on it you can have it so that you
00:08:16
can only place aoku for 20 minutes a day
00:08:18
so that's the kind of thing that this
00:08:20
will help fix and that pretty much
00:08:21
covers most bases when it comes to
00:08:23
navigation now the next thing is
00:08:25
probably not one that you've seen before
00:08:26
and uh it's nextdns so next DN s is a
00:08:30
DNS service and no this isn't sponsored
00:08:32
or anything I do have an affiliate link
00:08:34
uh just through my account because I use
00:08:36
them too so I'll leave that down in the
00:08:37
description alongside a normal affiliate
00:08:40
link but with nextdns essentially you
00:08:42
can have parental controls and I
00:08:44
actually connect through nextdns with
00:08:46
ivpn because ivpn lets you use a custom
00:08:48
DNS provider now what this is going to
00:08:51
do is you can set different parental
00:08:52
restrictions kind of like how in screen
00:08:54
time you can control like app limits and
00:08:56
things like that you can do that but on
00:08:58
a website basis and you can just
00:09:00
outright disable certain things at
00:09:01
different times of the day so for
00:09:03
example you can have it so that your
00:09:05
phone can't connect to Signal servers
00:09:07
between 2 and 4:00 really whatever you
00:09:10
want to do you can also block things
00:09:11
outright like social media and porn and
00:09:13
really anything else you want to do and
00:09:15
NEX DS is totally free to use in fact I
00:09:17
still use the free plan because I still
00:09:19
don't use uh the full quota to have to
00:09:21
upgrade so yeah I really like nextdns
00:09:25
and you can use this on any device you
00:09:26
just customize it once and then you uh
00:09:28
pretty much use your nextdns url inside
00:09:32
of any device of your choice which is
00:09:34
really freaking cool now it's worth
00:09:35
mentioning you don't have to use nextdns
00:09:37
there are other services like control D
00:09:38
you can find a ton of things that try to
00:09:40
accomplish this on a DNS level I just
00:09:42
personally really like next DNS and I
00:09:43
find the UI and the layout and the
00:09:46
usability to be the best for me uh the
00:09:47
seventh thing is just going to be the
00:09:49
minor things I do consider these things
00:09:51
minor and I think they get too much uh
00:09:54
talk time all things considered you're
00:09:56
going to see things like grayscale mode
00:09:58
which the phone you know my phone is in
00:09:59
gril scale mode uh you're going to see
00:10:01
things like disabling the bells and
00:10:03
whistles and the settings you're going
00:10:04
to see things like I I disabled Siri
00:10:06
suggestions I pretty much turned off
00:10:08
notifications for every app except just
00:10:10
the bare minimum uh I right now for the
00:10:14
video I turned off uh autolock but
00:10:16
normally I have autolock set to 30
00:10:18
seconds so if I'm not doing anything for
00:10:19
30 seconds the phone shuts off these are
00:10:22
things that you will find like a million
00:10:24
tips on online that's just they get a
00:10:27
lot of talking time and while I don't
00:10:29
think they're not like I don't think
00:10:31
they're unimportant uh I just think that
00:10:33
they already get so much talking time
00:10:35
and I think a lot of people have
00:10:36
probably already done those things but
00:10:38
you can't just set your phone to
00:10:39
grayscale mode and then not do any other
00:10:42
changes and expect that to make a a
00:10:44
significant difference so I think you
00:10:46
really have to combine all of those tips
00:10:48
together and you do get maybe a minor
00:10:50
benefit but I do think how you engage
00:10:52
with your device in the first place is
00:10:54
the most important thing which is why I
00:10:55
really harp on removing the home screen
00:10:58
and using spot light search or trying to
00:11:00
replicate that on an Android device
00:11:02
because that way you're actually
00:11:03
actively using your device instead of
00:11:05
passively using your device but once
00:11:07
you're here at step seven I would say it
00:11:08
really is the minor things which kind of
00:11:11
takes me to my last point which is
00:11:14
point8 just whacked my phone point eight
00:11:17
is you punch your phone as hard as you
00:11:19
can now um point eight is uh I would say
00:11:23
it's your mentality uh so we're going to
00:11:25
stop with the tech I'm going to turn off
00:11:27
the phone right now and and I'm just
00:11:29
going to talk you can kind of see my
00:11:30
outline here hello um but pretty much uh
00:11:34
it's the mentality and your own personal
00:11:36
behavioral changes it is a thing um
00:11:38
you're always going to see people say oh
00:11:40
you don't need to minimize your phone
00:11:41
you don't need to make boundaries just
00:11:43
just try harder um and that's not the
00:11:45
reality for a lot of people uh these
00:11:48
phones are straight up addictive and we
00:11:49
have research on this there's a reason
00:11:51
why screen time goes up every year most
00:11:53
people are on their phones all the time
00:11:54
so if it was just as easy as having more
00:11:56
willpower more people would be doing it
00:11:58
I see this this as like a drug addiction
00:12:00
or like an alcoholic or something like
00:12:02
that which is uh I think it needs to be
00:12:04
a combination of environmental changes
00:12:07
to establish boundaries and then the
00:12:09
mentality changes required to pretty
00:12:11
much stick to those boundaries so that's
00:12:13
how I would look at this everything
00:12:15
we've talked about and done so far is
00:12:17
all about setting up boundaries but you
00:12:19
can bypass all of them you can bypass
00:12:22
downtime but you're just trying to
00:12:23
reduce the amount of times that that
00:12:25
happens you can always disable grayscale
00:12:27
mode you can find ways to abuse even
00:12:29
things like signal and just bug people
00:12:30
late at night and get on Long phone
00:12:32
calls when you should probably just go
00:12:33
to bed uh I know that with some people I
00:12:36
I just really want to harp here that all
00:12:38
these boundaries I covered today um are
00:12:40
all an important part of keeping you in
00:12:42
line but it's still your responsibility
00:12:44
to respect the boundaries and keep
00:12:46
yourself accountable I will say the cool
00:12:49
thing is this only gets easier with time
00:12:52
ideally uh because you're going to form
00:12:54
those long-term habits of avoiding your
00:12:55
phone so every time you have that urge
00:12:58
to go and check check your phone or
00:12:59
check an app and you fight it off uh
00:13:01
it's going to be that much easier next
00:13:03
time you do it so just to summarize
00:13:05
number one is pick a good phone from the
00:13:07
get-go uh you can still pick up a 13
00:13:09
mini hopefully Apple brings it back for
00:13:11
the SE I'm very optimistic about that uh
00:13:14
if you want a small Android device I
00:13:15
believe the smallest you can really
00:13:17
realistically get with security updates
00:13:18
is going to be the Asus Zen phone but it
00:13:20
has its own issues so I guess tread
00:13:22
carefully there number two reduce the
00:13:24
applications on your phone three uh the
00:13:27
home screen remove everything can from
00:13:29
your home screen and four move over to
00:13:31
better navigation that's not just
00:13:33
looking at apps it's actually actively
00:13:34
choosing which app you want to open do
00:13:36
utilize the built-in tools uh on your
00:13:38
devices like downtime screen time and
00:13:40
anything like that over on Android uh
00:13:42
you can use DNS filters like next DNS
00:13:45
which I find to be incredibly helpful
00:13:46
there's the minor things like grayscale
00:13:48
mode and all the settings that you can
00:13:49
turn off or on on your device to make
00:13:51
things a little bit more focused and
00:13:53
then of course the big thing I would
00:13:55
really focus on is uh your mentality
00:13:57
about it and making sure you stick to in
00:13:59
holding yourself accountable and doing
00:14:00
frequent check-ins on yourself and uh
00:14:03
that is my guide to my what I consider
00:14:05
to be ultra minimal phone I see some
00:14:07
people make their minimal phone Guides
00:14:11
Online and they're not that minimal I do
00:14:13
consider this to be ultra minimal
00:14:15
there's always going to be people who
00:14:16
are more Ultra than I am that's for sure
00:14:19
but um I do think that this is probably
00:14:21
going to be uh an very very good guide
00:14:24
for a lot of people and it's going to be
00:14:25
more than what you're currently doing
00:14:26
for most of you so I hope this was help
00:14:28
F and yeah hope you all enjoy
