Life and Lab Refreshed #5
Escaping the Attention Economy
👋 Hey friends,
Last week, I released a video about how the attention economy works — and why homelabbing and self-hosting might be one of the few real escapes from it. I ended that video with a challenge: read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport and join me for a 30-day digital detox to rethink your relationship with technology.
What I didn’t expect was how many people were already feeling the same pull. The Discord has exploded with new faces — people eager to take back control of their time and attention — and I couldn’t be happier about it.
So, this week’s issue of Life and Lab is dedicated entirely to that mission: how we’ll run the first cohort of the Digital Minimalist’s Lab.
Introducing: The Digital Minimalist’s Lab
We can come up with a better name later. For now, the goal is simple — to build a structure that actually helps people make lasting change. How do we design these 30-day digital detoxes (and the weeks that follow) so they truly work?
The truth is, ditching your smartphone or cutting out the apps isn’t easy. Cal Newport calls it a David and Goliath battle — and he’s right. Big Tech invests hundreds of millions, even billions, into attention engineering. “Attention engineer” is a real job title, held by people with PhDs in psychology from the world’s top universities. Your attention is the most valuable resource on Earth — and taking it back is hard.
But here’s the good news: we’re not defenseless anymore.
Entire fields of research in computer science and psychology have been quietly developing tools to help David win. We’re going to use that research here — combining evidence-based strategies with real community support to make the process work.
So let’s start small. Let’s start with Week 1.
🧭 Week 1: Planning and the Buddy System
One of the most powerful ways to change your behavior is by combining mental contrasting (imagining different futures) with implementation intentions (writing concrete “if–then” plans).
This week’s goal is to define your why — and make it practical.
Part 1: The Two Futures
We’re going to do a little time travel. Picture yourself one year from now if your doomscrolling gets worse.
How do you spend your time?
How do you feel at the end of a typical day?
What do your relationships look like?
What have you accomplished—or avoided?
Write it all down. Be brutally honest.
Then, flip the script. Imagine the opposite future—you’ve drastically reduced digital distraction. You’ve become intentional, focused, creative, present.
How do you spend your time?
How do you feel?
How have your relationships changed?
What does your environment look like now?
This lets you really see what you’re missing out on. Who you could be. Two possible stories—one of drift, one of direction.
Part 2: Identify Your Tech Stack
Now that you’ve seen both futures, list your technologies under three categories:
Cut Completely – platforms or apps that don’t add real value.
Reduce Usage – apps you’ll keep but on your terms.
Reclaim Your Time – what you’ll do instead.
Once you’ve got your list, you need concrete behaviours to follow through on. These are implementation intentions. Implementation intentions are simple “if–then” plans that link a specific situation with a specific action — for example, “If I feel the urge to check my phone while working, then I’ll take three deep breaths and refocus on my task.”
Reduce Usage Example:
“When I get the urge to check YouTube at work, I will open my project notes instead.”Reclaim Your Time Example:
“When I feel bored and reach for Netflix, I’ll go for a walk.”
“When I finish dinner, instead of scrolling, I’ll read one chapter of a book.”
Part 3: Set Your Default Environment
Finally, make your environment work for you.
Turn off all non-essential notifications.
Move distracting apps off your home screen.
Log out of platforms you’re reducing.
Block the sites that drain you most.
This article I wrote on Quitting Doomscrolling has a useful set of examples.
You don’t need perfection. You just need defaults that make the right choice easier.
The Weeks That Follow
Our Digital Minimalism Lab will run from today until November 6th.
Every Thursday, we’ll check in as a community:
🧭 Discord Check-Ins: Share how your week went — what felt good, what felt hard, and what tripped you up. Be honest. If you relapsed, that’s okay. It happens. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s awareness and recovery.
🎥 Thursday Live Streams: I’ll be streaming each week, sharing my own progress, the strategies that helped, and the ones that didn’t. We’ll keep it real, practical, and a little bit funny, because this stuff’s hard.
Each week, write down:
How you felt — emotionally, mentally, even physically.
What you struggled with.
What filled the space left behind when you cut the distractions.
You’ll start to see patterns — what triggers the pull back toward the screen, and what genuinely restores you. We’ll review these at the end of 30 days to see how far you’ve come!
Find a Digital Minimalist Buddy
Change sticks better when you’re not doing it alone. We’ll have a dedicated #find-a-buddy channel in Discord where you can pair up with someone.
Check in with each other once or twice a week.
Swap what’s working.
Keep each other accountable when things get rough.
If you happen to be in the same city, awesome — meet for coffee or a walk. If not, a message or a quick call works just as well.
November 6th: The Recap
When we reach November 6th, we’ll do a community recap.
We’ll talk about what changed, what didn’t, and how to keep the momentum going. If it works for you, I’ll also be taking notes from this first cohort to refine and run another round.
By the end of the 30 days, you’ll have:
A clearer picture of how tech shapes your life.
A set of personal systems and “if–then” plans that actually work.
A community of people doing the same work alongside you.
This isn’t just about quitting apps. It’s about reclaiming your attention — and seeing what happens when you give it back to yourself.
🔗 Links & Community
My Links:
Discord: https://discord.gg/gYMVfRYK
GitHub: https://github.com/NLaundry
👋 Wrapping Up
Thank you for reading. If you choose to participate in the first cohort of the Digital Minimalist’s lab, the primary resource is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18uthYCxk2VRu9KHfwocJW1hy8_MXnGMy9q8mHBwv2V4/edit?tab=t.0
This document summarizes what to do and how to participate. I also humbly request, if you haven’t already, join the discord and subscribe to this newsletter to stay up to date with the lab and so I can share materials and useful references.
Cheers,
Nathan Laundry
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