Digital Minimalism Is Making Me A Better Musician

Howdy! Today I want to talk about Digital Minimalism, and how it's helped me to start becoming a better and more creative musician in only a few weeks.

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[VenusTheory]

Minimalism go Your assignment: try spending however much time you spend on your phone/whatever working on something creative for the next 7 days.

[dyscotopia]

In Buddhism there is talk of hot boredom and cool boredom. The former is the restless feeling of needing to get away from whatever is going on in our brains and emotion, but cool boredom, apart from being cool, is where we begin to appreciate the joyful ease of not having our dopamine receptors smashed with useless stimuli. The latter is where my creative flow truly arises

[TheJimmyCartel]

getting off socials was one of the best things i ever did. amazing how much more productive, creative, and what skills you can learn when you don't drop multiple hours on your phone everyday. My boss thinks I'm a genius but I just have the whole day to study lol. Watch your screen time! Most of the world is pretty addicted and you get a huge advantage

[edd]

My ADHD combined with any sort of social media, is a death sentence for productivity - which is difficult enough as it is. Reducing the amount of opportunities for distraction is so amazingly important for anyone, I don't have any doomscrolling sites on my phone and I cannot stress how much it helps you get on with things in the real world.

[Gzijebeziu]

You happened to drop this video at the exact moment I was wasting my precious time on YouTube watching interesting, but ultimately useless videos instead of learning about synthesis and composing like I had planned yesterday. Thank you.

[PeterTMusic]

I love that your channel is leaning more into “creative YouTube” than specifically music YouTube. Obviously I love music, and I love your videos on the subject.

But at the same time, these kinds of videos have inspired me to engage in more than just music for a creative outlet. Filmmaking/cinematography, writing, graphic design, all of it. Thanks for being an inspiration man 🙂

[titovalasques]

What you’re describing is what Steven Pressfield calls ‘Resistance’ in a series of books starting with “The War of Art”. He essentially outlines how it (resistance) will do anything to stop you from deviating from the Status Quo and kill any sign of creative urge. His solution is to treat it like an enemy, understand it and where it comes from and go to war against it. It may sound cheesy but so far it has worked for me. I’m still struggling but at least I know how to recognise it and call out my own bullshit when I let it control me.

[badgereaux]

Well heck if this isn't the EXACT video I needed to see today. Thank you for softening another rough day.

[Childhoof]

Well said Cameron. One of THE worst things to kill your motivation is jumping on your phone as soon as you wake up; it starts you chasing the 'bad' dopamine all day. You're much better off going outside, getting sun in your eyes & walking. And thanks for the Unkook app tip = game changer!

[kumquat]

I often find myself scrambling to find a youtube video or podcast related to music production to listen to while I "get work done, " just to find that I was creating a growing obsession trying to collect as much information as I could just so I could have something to do. And it turns out well over half of that information was pointless and not crucial to my journey as a musician. Thank you for reminding me it's okay to be bored, and to rise above the dangerous habit I was practicing.

[frankdillard]

I'm a 62 year old boomer, I work in technology, and I have to walk that line too.
I have definitely allowed WOW and GW2 and Conan Exiles etc. usurp my time as well.
I had to double down on music to get out.
Yeah and going out too.
I live in the desert, no excuse to stay in after work.

[pham]

You can use B&wW filter on iphone too! Go to settings -> accessibility -> screen and text size -> color filters. You can assign that to the double tap on the back of the phone so you can restore it whenever.

[dk-sky]

Watching this video on my phone while procrastinating instead of doing what I've planned to do afterwork for my self-development is the biggest controversy I've experienced in a long time...

[grayshadowglade]

It is extremely satisfying to see people come around to living intentionally in order to free themselves from the trappings of consumer culture. So much of everything you describe here is not so much about disconnecting or being minimalist, but about setting healthy boundaries between yourself and the sea of constant distractions engineered to manipulate and entrap you. By adding intent driven selectivity you create a natural filter for things that reward you for cultivating your own life which in turn creates a virtuous cycle of growth. This development has the added benefit of strengthening your resolve, reducing stress, and feeds your creative energy rather than drains it. You absolutely nailed all the critical elements of this and I hope it continues to reinvigorate all of your life. I am by no means any expert but I can confidently say you have unlocked one of the gates of nirvana and I look forward to your journey through it. Live well, good sir. There is no other life worth living.

[tammy]

After a lot of experimentation, I discovered that both Android and Iphone have parental controls, so my old phone became my parent phone with a password and my regular phone had all the candy crack blocked. On Android it can even block specific websites. That way I can have all the important things like maps running freely instead of buying a dumphone or minimalism apps that only ever seem to partially work.

[BaronBlackmore]

What helped for me is a combination of two things:
1 - no phone after 9pm
2 - schedule a non-phone activity for 9pm every day

[kiregenofficial]

Yea, the only thing I do about social media addiction - I watch videos about social media addiction..

[TheLordGU]

Boredom and idleness have a bad reputation - for absolutely no good reason! At least I am not aware of any good one. Looking out a window without any intention and feeling this weird something creeping up to you can be both, challenging and satisfying at the same time. At least that’s my personal experience. (Yeah, the one writing a comment for a YouTube video. I am aware of the spot I find myself in, at least at this very moment.)
The fantastic thing about boredom and idleness is that (from my experience) can make ideas become more clear, even if they are tiny at first glance. And when you feel bored enough, that feeling of happiness when returning to something like your studio (what ever that might be or look like, it doesn’t really matter) and pickup something 'unfinished' or just try something new, different, whatever … I say, it’s worth it, it’s worth trying.
Good luck everyone. – And Cam: Nice video, thanks for that one!

[dyscotopia]

I sometimes see comments about why I like hardware synths when everything is so instant in Fruity or Ableton... But the amount of mastering tutorials that I get served here is a good reminder. I just adjust the eq and compression on my mixer a bit and everything is good. The fact each piece of gear is rather limited compared to a high end vst lets me know what each box excels at rather than just getting overwhelmed with endless settings

[PaulCollierMusic]

It's such a huge problem with long-term impacts. I'm glad you've covered this. One thing that's helped me is the decision to keep my phone ONLY in the kitchen when I'm home. Also, a good book for anyone needing help with not only breaking the addiction, but how it's addicting is called 'How to break up with your phone' by Catherine Price.