Digital Minimalism

I was born in 80's and i remember life without smartphones yet we are all happy and contented in our life. We use to enjoy playing bahay-bahayan (house play), run in the field, climb trees and many other activities that requires motor skills with our peers. Comparing our teenage life with today's generation i can see a huge difference. Teens of today are more on smartphone, who does not enjoy much of the outside world, and very few wanted to go out to play with their peers and if they do, they have their smart phone with them, while having a meal, talking with their friends and ect. While in our time, when we play, we play without any distractions.  

Technology has hit us by storm in 20th century, that it was so difficult for us to be far away from our phone.Our smartphone has become part of our system, that our digital footprints has skyrocket, we check them before we sleep and as we wake up. We use our smartphones even if we are at dining table, we snap our food before we eat them and with all excitement we post it to  our social media pages, right?.I don't excuse myself into this, in fact i have been swallowed by the social media, i manage multiple account from business to personal. I spend a lot of my time on my phone by randomly scrolling, hitting the like button, dropping nonsense comments! When i feel happy i immediately share it to social media, as well as when am feeling blue. Sometimes i aim to have many likes, comments...admit it, you do too?

I keep myself on track to what is trending, and regularly check status and updates from my friends via Facebook and Instagram. It is overwhelming to be honest, but then i get tired of the overwhelming social media communications long time ago. Back in 2012 i delete all my face photo, and and even ask my friends not to post my photo on Facebook specially when am not wearing hijab. I delete personal photos of my family and rarely share, if i do i see to it that we don't post face photos. When i travel abroad i see to it that i post my travel photo after and not during....

I thought am already okey, but indeed social media sucks like a leech. I still check my Facebook and Instagram very often, hit the like button, leave nonsense comments, receive random notifications.....I keep on scrolling until i didn't notice that i have been there for 2 hours or more. I have waste my time, have set aside what i supposed to do. sigh...

I have longed wanted to take break but then i was stop because i have FOMO (Fear of missing out). What if its emergency, i will miss updates from my friends.....but... recently, Sam (my college classmate and friend) told me about the book of Cal Newport Digital Minimalism and it changes the game on  my social media footprints. 

But what is Digital Minimalism. The author define its as 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.

Based on the definition above and my understanding, digital minimalist does not mean giving up your smart phone and blocking the world of social media. Rather it is pro-used of the social media that add values to your life. I have learn a lot from his book that my eagerness to share it to all of you who are reading now is giving me madness as i composed this blog. At the end of the day i wish that i can impart to you the joy of being able to control our smartphones intakes and not the other way around. But how do we really do it? Well let me share to you the lesson from this book.

1. The why?
Ask yourself what you exactly need from your smartphone, what value you get from social media. By assessing our need, we can put line between our needs and wants, that is because your wants will never end. If you are an employee for sure you need access to your email, and if your far away from your family, you might need whatsApp, and messenger. The rest is just your wants.

2. Retain and Delete 
After defining what you need, then keep it, and delete those distractions without intentions of re-installing it again. JUST DELETE.

3. Will power

We can only control our footprints in social media if we have the willingness to control our self. Ask yourself why you want to reduce your social media footprints?, because only by knowing our intention we can set goals. Through self motivation and sticking to your goals will all succeed. We should focus.

4. Scheduling

Let me put this on record, i am not against social media and smartphone use. It has made various transactions and easy and more affordable, it also give me opportunity to have my own e-shop, but i am against of too much use for nothing! For an office worker like myself we usually work from 8am to 5pm, am home by 6pm. Not to deprive myself i used 6:30 pm to - 9:30 pm a time to browse my phone, answer messages, and do random nonsense stuff. 

Strictly, after 9:30pm, it's time to put my phone into silent mode and put them away from my sigh after reading the book of Cal Newport, i try to put my mobile phone in my bag, put in silent mode with the aim to open it by tomorrow morning only after praying Fajr (morning prayer). At 1st it was difficult because i miss it alot, i made alot of trial and error, but after few days i become use to it, that it become my routine.Some may argue what if  its emergency and your family need to reach you out, well my family know my landline phone number, the rest can wait till i open my phone the next day!

5. Turn off the notification
Now a days almost all of us have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and may other apps that we installed in our smartphone.  That's OK, but turn off those unnecessary notifications, put it in silent mode, specially if you are at work, you are driving or having a face to face conversation with other people. Eliminate distractions, this will help you alot towards your goal of being a digital minimalist.

6.Find use hobbies and alternatives

Before smartphone takes over me, i used to play badminton on a regular basis and does enjoy reading books. I read an average of 1-3 books per week and i have a random interest from comics, fictions, martial arts and ect...But for the past decade i was hook to smartphones by watching random videos and doing nonsense stuff online. I almost forgot reading books that now i wanna get back to that, i miss this part of me where i have great concentration in life, that my ideas overflow after every book that i finish.

But why we need to minimize our digital foot? I always ask myself, why? social media is fun, but after a careful look i realized that basically my life has been very virtual and so by using only social media with good a purpose i was able to achieve the following.

1. Quality Communications

Even before digital minimalism, i dislike to talk to people who keep on looking at their phone, nor have meal with a person who keep on sneak picking their phone for me it is very disrespectful. I usually pin-point on my older sister to drop off her phone while talking to me. For me defining good communication now a days means having a face to face conversation without social media distractions.

2. Solitude

Raymond Kethledge and Michael S. Erwin in their book Lead yourself First define solitude as time spent free from inputs from other minds. Thinking about the definition made me remember Khusho in Salah which implies the concentration of a muslim praying as if Allah swt see him, although he do not see Allah swt.

In this noisy world and demanding work environment we forgot to give our self the real "me time". We always though we are busy, well that is true, most of us work 8 hours per day + our overtime, but after that we become busy on our phone. We forgot to give our self a time to block those stressful moment and situations, we thought that having our phone browsing for few minutes to hours is relaxing, but actually it is not, it is stressful because we cannot stop our self from reacting to video we watch, and not everything shared in our feeds are good for our mind, most of it are very violent videos and post.

If we can at least spend minimum of 15 minutes to organized our thought and listen to our inner self it will make large difference in our life. For example, i always drive fast, and get easily irritated, but after doing a 15-30 minutes of self reflections i become calm and driving while enjoying the scenic view of Doha.

3. Stress Free
Social Media is stressful and it is no joke at all. American journal of prevented medicine in July 2017 written by Brian Primack from University of Pittsburgh found our someone in the highest quartile of social media use was three times more likely to be lonelier than someone in the lowest quartile. The more that we are connected and updated to our social media account the more lonely we are.

4. Health Improvements 
Since i work in office, i am already in front of my computer from 8am to 5pm, that many time i really feel that my eyes is tired adding cellphone really makes my eyes sore. For my foot prints from of my work desktop i can only take a break in between hours, but for mobile phone i take it away from desk or put all the social network notification into silent, which means that i will open it only when i reach home or during the break. Thus it improve my eyes tiredness. I also observe that i find myself more relax and i can concentrate to my work more than ever.

5. More accomplishment
Base on Cal Newport blog & book digital minimalism an average individual does spend 2 hours for their social media accounts. But in my experience i spend about 5 hours in 24 hours based on my screen time. As much as i want to rebut and say "well of course i have my e-shops!" but still its a shame to spend long hours in social media and am not really proud of that, that i came to this point that i want to reduce my digital footprints.

I want to focus on more important things like reading books about minimalism, tiny house, van life, numismatics, arts and crafts, investments, saving tips, and sustainable living. Those topics really interest me now a days specially after having my own tiny home. Also i want to exert more effort in writing blogs that interest me where i can share something which is good and i can be proud off. And improve on my products and business.

You maybe ask, so did you delete your Facebook and Instagram? My answer is NO, but i turn off all the notification, put schedule on when would i use my Facebook and Instagram. I just simply put discipline while using my phone and social media.

I hope this article has help you look within yourself and realized how social media affect us, that after assessing yourself you will make a good decision that will benefit you in the long run. Godbless

55 Famous Alibis

Think and Grow Rich is a book  written by an American Author Napoleon Hill. This book was 1st published in 1937 ( 83 years ago as of 2020),  the book is considered to be the best selling self-help book of all time. If at present someone would ask me what book you can recommend i would put this as my top 10 recommend books specially if you are about to embarked in aiming to be a successful in whatever choose field you may choose to walk in life. 

This book has open my mind to various topics that need to be discuss and consider if your aiming for success. I would like to dissect the lesson i got from this book, but since it is very diverse i cannot put it into one article or else it will be too long, that i plan to make a series of article regarding this book. I would like to start by sharing 55 alibis written in this book. But why Alibis? simply because we often hear in from other people, and we may sometimes use them as our own excuse. So here we go..

1. If only I didn’t have a wife and family
2. If only I had enough “pull”
3. If only I had enough money
4. If only I had good Education
5. If only I could get a job
6. If only I had a good health
7. If only I had time
8. If only Times were better
9. If only Other people understood me
10. If only Conditions around me were different
11. If only I could live my life over again
12. If only I did not fear what they would say
13. If only I had been given a chance
14. If only I now had a chance
15. If only Other people didn’t have it in for me
16. If only Nothing happened to stop me
17. If only I were younger
18. If only I could do what I want
19. If only I have been born rich
20. If only I could meet the right people
21. If only I had the talent some people have
22. If only I Dare assert myself
23. If only I had embraced past opportunities
24. If only People didn’t get on my nerves
25. If only I didn’t have to keep house and look after the children
26. If only I could save some money
27. If only The boss appreciate me
28. If only I had somebody to help me
29. If only My family would understood me
30. If only I live in a big city
31. If only I could just get started
32. If only I were free
33. If only I had personality of some people
34. If only I were not so fat
35. If only My talents were known
36. If only I could just get a break
37. If only I could get out of debt
38. If only I hadn’t failed
39. If only I knew how
40. If only Everybody didn’t oppose me
41. If only I didn’t have so many worries
42. If only I could marry the right person
43. If only People weren’t so dumb
44. If only My family were not so extravagant
45. If only I were sure of myself
46. If only Luck were not against me
47. If only I had not been born under the wrong star
48. If only It were not true that “what is to be will be”
49. If only I did not have to work so hard
50. If only I hadn’t lost my money
51. If only I live in a different neighborhood
52. If only I didn’t have a “past”
53. If only I had business of my own
54. If only Other people would listen to me
55. If only I had courage to myself

Which of this alibis have you used? or you frequently use? 

Alibis is hindrance to our success, if only we could eliminate the IF ONLY of our life then our opportunities to success bundle with our hard-work and determination will always be beyond limits, the problem with us (myself included) is that we keep on looking far away that we focus on what is missing and what we don't have. As a result we miss what we have, and lost the opportunity to use and utilize our resources because of our own alibis. In other words if we want we have ways, otherwise we have reasons. 

Loving Yourself

Love is in the air, as February 14 is almost here, The Valentines Day, the day that lovebirds always clings on, the time where love messages overflows in our social media, the time where lovers exert preparing something special for their love ones. How sweet, how romantic could that be, for us to receive the most anticipated flowers, chocolates and love gifts from our love-ones. No matter how small it could be, it is the effort that count.

But what kind of love are you longing for?. Is it the love from our parents, siblings, friends  or from our romantic relationship. This love month i want to discuss about the love for our self, the love that we almost forgot because we are too busy giving love to other people, because that's the love we know for sure. Of course who don't want that butterfly moment where we blush and our day seems bright no matter how blue our environment could be.

But what we don't know is that loving our self is  a must too before loving others. Loving our self is the best love we can ever give next to loving our God and Prophet. It is because when we love our self enough, love naturally illuminate to the people around us. Being in love with yourself will brings you confidence and self-worth that will help you to become a positive person that see life challenges as opportunity to win. Some say that loving our self is selfishness but i strongly rebut because i always believe that the only way we can love others is if we have more than enough love to our self. But how do we really do love our self?

1. Find your own happiness within yourself.

Finding happiness within our self contribute to the positive self deposition. You can do this by  asking yourself what makes you happy, is it reading books?, having me time, treating yourself a good dinner?, buying yourself a self gift? or giving yourself your most awaited vacation?. Whatever it is that makes you happy, you yourself alone can define it.

2. Forgive yourself

We all made our shared of mistakes, we hurt others as much as we are hurting our self. In many instances we hurt our self more than others without realizing it, but their is no better way the forgiving yourself and learning from that mistakes and move on. It will be hard but at least you will get there.

3. Balance

Moderation in almost everything that we do is what we need. Too much and too less of something is bad for us, thus striking a balance will always result to positive output. One example of this is having a career and learning to treat yourself after a hardwork. A me time will always be rewarding where you give yourself a time to relax from those stressful work.

4. Treat Yourself

After a long hours of work treat yourself by having activities that you enjoy the most. As simple as watching your favorite youtube videos, reading books, cooking your favorite snacks will add to your day, simple joy can make a difference to our life outlook.

5. Declutter

Minimalism has impact the life of many including myself. Less is more and it is true. The less we pay attention to materials things the more we can focus and re-align our self to a more interesting things that will help us be productive and more accomplished individual.

Aside from de-cluttering your possession, you may also de-clutter your emotional, psychological and mental stress that affect you as person.Let go of those heavy baggage, we are not superman nor a super woman that could save the world. But saving our own self will contribute to a better world. 

6. Highlight your accomplishment

If you have accomplished your task of the day then highlight it, appreciating our own-self is rewarding rather than being to harsh or too hard to our own self. By simply saying "yay you made it!" will always contribute to positive outlook in life. Being greatfull to our self fuel our will to have more without the weight of being pressured. 

7. Health Choice

Not everyone are born healthy what i mean by that is some are born inheriting a sickness or disease  but everyone can choose to have healthy options. From the food that we eat, to the life style that we live and emotions where we exposed our self too. We have choice, and choosing positive life deposition will always give us great benefits in the long run.

8. Journal

Its always nice to track our doing in this way we can see our strength, weakness and improvements. Journal will help us write what we cannot say and share what we cannot share. For me journal is  a form of deep self exploration and therapy. I have so much to say and share yet i fear of sharing it to other people, my heart at times often battles against my mind that the only way to resolve it is to evaluate both side or else this madness will explode!. 

But also you have to keep in mind that not everyone is ready to hear drama and un-organize thoughts as much as i dont want listen to others as well. So journal will always be the best options for me.

9. Self Evaluation

Know which areas are you good at so you can master it further and know which area you need help and do something about it by turning those weakness into strength.

10. Prayer

As i always say "nothing beats a person who has God in their heart". For a prayer bring us to the reason why we exist in this world and that is to please the lord who created us.

I have seen so many people who have invested tons and tons of love towards other people (love-ones, family, friends, relatives, office-mate and people around us). Even though they may say that they don't need anything in return, i believe it is human nature to expect loved back, that we will be appreciated, that we will be respected. 

But just like the old saying "betrayal are from those who are near to us" that is true in many sense because the people who are near to us are the one that we love the most, we respect the most, we cherish the most, yet at times they are the exact people who made us experience the pain we can never imagine. 

I am not suggesting hatred towards other people, but i would like to implied the balance of the love we give to our fellow. That we have to love our self more than enough so we can share that love to the people around us. 

20 Ways to save money in 2020

1. Know the difference between  NEEDS vs WANTS

In saving money knowing the difference of needs and wants becomes our guiding principles so we can control our self and our spending. Our want vs our needs should be clear to us just like how the east separates from north.

2. Pay attention to your health

Most of us are working very hard, sometimes we bring work at home or even work on weekend. I am a fan of making the most of my time, by being productive and will always go for the multiple source of income but at times we forgot to take care of our body until it beg us to have rest. So to all the workaholic out their, one of the best advise i can share to you and myself is taking care of your physical, emotional and mental health.

3.Track your spending

Listing our expenditure will give us the overview about our spending, it will surprise us that most of our expenditures are from a non-sense purchases if we don't know how to control ourself. Having a track will remind us to safeguard our hard earn money.

4. Pay debt

No one become rich by having debt. For once in our life we made a debt and i wish they are good debt or a debt because we badly need them not because we want something. Also never forget to pay for debt!. 

If at this point of your life you owe someone a huge amount and you don't know how to pay them, I highly recommend reading My Utang Free Diary by Chinkee Tan.

5. Auto bill payment 

We all have due date, house rent, phone bills, water and electricity. Sometimes due to our busy schedule we forgot to pay them on time, or we are just lazy to do so. Take advantage of the e-payment systems and facilities which is widely available in your current location, more often than not they also give discounts.

6. Auto savings

Many of us saved after our expenses, but actually it is wrong. We should save 1st and then budget our remaining money. We should adjust to our earning, and never our earning adjust to our life style. Link your current account and saving account, and the system will do his work, by saving 20% or more each and every pay day, you will never realized your saving account is growing.

7. Price Negotiate 

Its always best to ask for discount before paying. I am not talking about haggling for 1QAR goods that's ridiculous! What i am trying to say is that we should set certain amount for example if the good has reach 1,000 qar then we can start negotiating specially in purchasing our home appliance. We can also get discount if we are paying in-cash and if your are buying more.

8. Go cash 

As they say their is something in cash that its hard for us to let go, rather than having a credit card in our hand. Virtual currency is really tempting. Sometimes it is so easy for you to swipe your card for 1,000 qar but you have hard time moving out a 500qar from your wallet.

9. Consider relocating

If the place where you stay is expensive and far from your work try to find an affordable and comfortable place near your work place. It will save you money and time for your back and forth transportation.

10. Stop paying for convenience

In middle east drive thru, karak and take away's are all just a click away, alo't of establishment does offer convenient for food delivery and various services. I remember before that i even pay for my laundry and iron. My best excuse "am tired"  shame, what an excuse!, we all get tired from doing 8-hours job! The truth is, am lazy (hahaha). I even hate making myself a coffee and would just stop by near restaurant and order karak, most of all i even don't like to go down my car. If we try to realized a little walk is good for our health and and now a days putting our laundry in an combo wash and dry machine why watching youtube is possible. 

11. Make grocery list
Grocery list will benefit us the most. One, you get what you need, two you save time. By not having your grocery list you always end up roaming the grocery store and end up picking-up items that you want and not you need.

12. Downgrade phone and net subscriptions

I have home broadband connection and post-paid here in Qatar which cost me more than  500qar /month. But the truth is i only need to my home broadband in my home country and Qatar to save a cost. Now a days we mostly communicate via whats App and messenger and we only need internet connection for that.

13. Cancel un-used subscriptions

In the name of dieting i brought a books full of coupons and instead of eating proper food i end up piggying. What a shame! Un-used subscription like TFC (The Filipino Channel) is waste of money in my opinion because we can see most of the TV program via Youtube and Facebook. Oh and never forget those people  who enroll themselves in a gym membership without even using it.

14.Quit bad habits

For many people smoking, drinking alcohol are bad habit. In my case i consider eating junk-foods and drinking soda a bad habit. I can now finally abstain from drinking soda, but still on the process of abstaining from junk-foods. Abstaining from soda save me penny, if before i always pick-up something to drink at store, now i can finally skip it without being sad. I hope i can do the same for junk-foods.

15. The 30 days purchase rule

I am now 14 months minimalist (but not extreme minimalist). Being minimalist made me a mindful buyer, if it spark joy and i can use it in many way then i would buy it, unlike before that if i find it cute even though i don't need it i would buy. 

Also try to buy the items (specially if it costly) after 30 days, most of the time you forgot the items and realized its good while its at the display shop and not in your place. But if you find in yourself that you still want the items, need the items and your eagerness to buy it does not change then you can buy it.

16. Product comparison

Comparing a product durability and life-span will really help you. This is very helpful specially if your buying home-appliances, furniture's and gadgets. Take your time before your much awaited purchase and choose the items at your own advantage.

17. Watch out for fear of missing out

Just because it is on sale doesn't mean you have to buy it. Many times the mall put a sale on a product because they have new to come-out, they are not best seller and many other reason. 

For a shopaholic seeing "SALE" make their heart pump a bit crazy and they will really take advantage of it thinking that they will never have the same chance again. The thing is, mall have sale almost every month.

18. Turn trash into cash

Even before minimalism i have the habit of cleaning my items before eid in Ramadan. Some are for donation, trash and other are posted online for sale. By doing this i eliminate my trash and earn some penny out of the items that i don't fancy.

19. Earn money using your skills and habit

I consider myself as hand-crafter, and so i turn it into business. When we make money to the things that we enjoy  it really a plus factor.

20. Education & application

By educating yourself through watching videos and reading books regarding financial management you are helping yourself attain financial stability. You don't have to break your neck enrolling into a course, use your resources like facebook, and youtube and you can follow various coaches that will help you stabilize your finances. But of course you have to apply those learning and lesson to your life as soon as you knew it. 

So do you have any other tip on saving money? Share to us in comments below!