Digital Minimalism
"Put another way: minimalists don’t mind missing out on small things; what worries them much more is diminishing the large things they already know for sure make a good life good."
— Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism (2019)
Introduction
| Digital Minimalism | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Full title | Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World |
| Author | Cal Newport |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Technology; Digital well-being; Productivity; Attention; Social media |
| Genre | Nonfiction; Self-help |
| Publisher | Portfolio |
Publication date | 5 February 2019 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback); e-book; audiobook |
| Pages | 304 |
| ISBN | 978-0-525-53651-2 |
| Goodreads rating | 4.1/5 (as of 4 November 2025) |
| Website | penguinrandomhouse.com |
📘 Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World (2019) is Cal Newport’s guide to a deliberate philosophy of technology built around a 30-day “digital declutter” and then rebuilding only the tools that serve your values.[1] Newport frames digital minimalism as focusing online time on a small set of carefully selected and optimized activities—“clutter is costly, optimization is important, and intentionality is satisfying.”[2] The book is organized in two parts—“Foundations” and “Practices”—across seven chapters that move from diagnosis to step-by-step tactics.[3] Its prose blends manifesto and manual, with recurring practices centered on solitude, high-bandwidth conversation, and high-quality leisure.[2] On release, it became a bestseller across the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today lists, and it reached #5 on the Wall Street Journal hardcover nonfiction list for the week ended 9 February 2019.[1][4]
Chapter summary
This outline follows the Portfolio hardcover edition (2019; ISBN 978-0-525-53651-2).[1][5] Table of contents verified via library catalogue.[3]
I – Foundations
🗡️ 1 – A Lopsided Arms Race.
🧘 2 – Digital Minimalism.
🧹 3 – The Digital Declutter.
II – Practices
🌲 4 – Spend Time Alone.
🚫👍 5 – Don’t Click “Like.”
🎨 6 – Reclaim Leisure.
🛡️ 7 – Join the Attention Resistance.
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Digital Minimalism". Penguin Random House. Portfolio. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fayle, Taylor (10 June 2019). "Walking Alone: On "Digital Minimalism"". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Digital minimalism — Table of contents". Marmot Library Network. Marmot Library Network. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
- ↑ "Best-Selling Books Week Ended Feb. 9". The Wall Street Journal. 15 February 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
- ↑ "Digital minimalism: choosing a focused life in a noisy world". WorldCat. OCLC. Retrieved 4 November 2025.