Why this works.+
You would notice forty dollars leaving your account. Nobody hands you a receipt for forty minutes.
60 minutes a day
What came back when people were paid to deactivate Facebook for four weeks. Not saved. Returned, and spent on other things.
Every hour is spent on exactly one thing.
The cost of that thing is the best alternative you did not do. Money comes with a running total. Time does not.
Name what the hour is for.
Digital minimalism means choosing which technology earns a place in your life. A rule that only subtracts is a rule you resent by Thursday.
Where these numbers come from
Allcott, Braghieri, Eichmeyer & Gentzkow (2020)
Deactivating freed up 60 minutes per day, and lifted well-being by 0.09 standard deviations, which the authors put at about a quarter to two-fifths of what therapy-style interventions deliver.
Read the paper
If you want to go further: Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman.