Digital Minimalism: Using One Device for Everything

05 Aug, 2025

As discussed in the video Digital Minimalism: Two Camps by Techlore, there are two main approaches to digital minimalism. One is spreading all your online activities out over separate, dedicated devices, while the other approach is doing everything on one device. While I prefer the first approach, my vacation abroad last month provided an opportunity to try out the single device approach for a few weeks.

Using different dedicated devices

With the first method, you assign your digital activities over different different pieces of hardware. You might play games on a console, read on an e-reader, listen on a digital radio, and so on. These then become your dedicated devices, the way a calculator has one main purpose.

The positive effect of the first method is that you use digital tools in a more considered and deliberate way, rather than mindlessly jumping from app to app in order to kill time or deal with boredom. You may even discover you don't need a digital hardware at all for certain activities, such as reading or journal writing.

A few years ago, I wrote about leaving my smartphone in the living room overnight. Doing so presented a practical problem, as I'd been using my smartphone as my alarm clock up until then. So I bought an alarm clock, another example of a single-purpose device. A better solution came later, when I purchased a Light Phone 2, which doesn't have smartphone-like apps. I now charge that next to my bed and use it as an alarm clock, while I can still be contacted by phone at night in case of emergency.

Searching for digital minimalism will bring up various videos and forums where people discuss their individual approaches. Cal Newman's book Digital Minimalism is a worthwhile read for those interested, too.

Before we move on to my experiences with the other method, using just one device for everything, here is how I normally separate out activities over different tools:

Reading: I used a Kindle for years and accumulated a library of digital books on my Amazon account. I later learned how to manage the digital books I purchased independently (without Amazon) with Calibre, but now I read paper books. Browsing second-hand bookstores is a very enjoyable experience for any book lover!
Writing: After lots of experimentation with keeping a secure digital diary, I have gone back to paper journals.
Calendar: I use a paper agenda for work, and we have a shared family calendar on the dining room wall. This gives me a chance to delay committing to arrangements on the spot and get back to people once I have checked what is happening for the whole family on any given day.
Travel, live entertainment: I print out all my tickets and bring a folder with printouts when traveling.
Music: I listen to music on a hi-fi system in the living room and buy (mostly second-hand) records and CDs. I'll admit this can be an expensive hobby.
Gaming: I like traditional TV-connected gaming consoles. There is a trade-off with privacy, because you can't play without giving personal details these days, but I use a dedicated Microsoft account for this.
Calling & texting, alarm clock: After trying out different feature phones, I decided on the Light Phone 2. I have been using it for years and it has been one of the more beneficial decisions I've made over the past few years to try and bring calm and control back into my life.
Email, web browsing, banking, blogging, notes, files: For these activities, I use a ThinkPad T440p laptop and MX Linux connected to a monitor and keyboard with a docking station. I do not sync applications to other devices, with the exception of cloud files.
Media entertainment: I love the way channel surfing can surprise you with great films and documentaries. I watch (a lot of) TV on the couch. Streaming is done via the TV box or the Xbox, also on the TV in the living room.
Government apps, Signal, news, 2FA, music streaming, photos, banking app, podcasts, crypto wallet I use a custom ROM smartphone connected to WiFi. I leave my smartphone at home whenever possible. During the week, I check my Signal messages before and after working hours.
Work Work files, software and communication are managed on a dedicated Windows PC at my desk, connected to the same monitor I use for daily browsing. I can switch between work and personal work by pressing a button on my monitor screen. Ultimately, I prefer going to my place work to doing work at home, so I turn my home work PC off whenever possible.
Server and mining I run a Nextcloud server on a third (older) PC. This one is always on, but I access it via SSH and only to do updates.

While there are some overlaps in my current approach (I prefer banking on PC, but sometimes use the smartphone; I listen to music on speakers in my living room, but use the smartphone for music streaming and podcasts), the physical separation of different devices has generally brought more calm into my life—more on this in a moment. I really enjoy reading before bed, and I love not having a smartphone on me when I'm out.

I use a KeePass database for my passwords, so that is one encrypted file I do need to sync across my devices.

As you can probably gather from the above list, a downside is inconvenience. I struggle with QR-code restaurant orders, for example, but usually find a solution. I look up routes and print maps ahead of time, but can get stuck when I need to look up a route on the go. Device management is a chore: I set reminders to update, clone and check all these different devices but sometimes ignore my own reminders.

Using a single device for everything

While the Light Phone 2 is a digital minimalism device that generally just works, I have not had much luck crossing borders with it. Something goes wrong with SIM connectivity. As a result, calling and texting abroad can be unpredictable, which is the last thing you want when traveling.

Before I travel abroad, I usually swap my SIM card to my smartphone, and take that with me. I tend to take additional hand-held gaming devices or a laptop, but on a longer trip abroad last month, I decided to try doing everything by smartphone.

Predictably, I rapidly became addicted to my smartphone. But first, let me explore the positive aspects of the single device method.

(I realise this is what most people do; hopefully I can add a fresh perspective as someone not used to carrying their smartphone with them all the time.)

One smartphone, but with different users

I did cheat a little bit and introduced (digital) separation on my smartphone. I have a custom ROM (GrapheneOS) installed on a Google Pixel phone. A neat feature is that it allows you to create different profiles with good separation. You can install, update and manage all the apps for different user profiles from your main profile. I did this because I wanted to have separation between Google Play apps and all my other open source apps.

In preparation for my journey, I had to install email apps (Tuta, Thunderbird) onto the smartphone. I also downloaded the Tuta calendar app and signed into that. I already had AntennaPod (podcasting) and Feeder (news feeds) installed, as well as Organic Maps, Signal and Nextcloud apps to connect to my server at home.

On the Google Play profile, I have government (tax), banking and pCloud apps. I use pCloud as a second cloud server, in case my own server PC crashes while I am away. I installed some audio book and ebook readers, as well as a library app. Finally, I thought I'd try Xbox's online gaming experience, so I installed that via Google Play too.

While I did introduce digital separation with the user accounts, I went on this trip, which lasted several weeks, with just one hardware device.

Overall experience using a single device

It was convenient to only have to carry a smartphone with me where ever I went. OS updates happen in the background, and app updates are automatically pushed to other user profiles from the main profile. This all felt a lot easier and less time-consuming than my multi-device setup at home.

I got to see what life is like as a full-time smartphone user. It's easy to pay for things, compare online prices, and find directions when lost or when you just want to find a decent bar nearby. Buying and showing tickets is less of a hassle, though you have to keep an eye on your phone's battery life. As smartphones easily fit in your pocket; I enjoyed not having to take a backpack everywhere I went! Finally, when traveling, sound-blocking headphones combine well with your smartphone.

I still bought paper books and usually carried one those with me. I did not end up using the reading apps I had installed. While I had a note app for my Nextcloud server on my phone, I mainly took notes in a little pocket notebook and pen. Streaming Xbox games worked...sort of, provided the Wi-Fi signal is strong enough. I tried it once as a test and didn't feel compelled to play again. In summary, it was not straightforward to let go of all the separation habits I'd developed over the years.

I became addicted to my smartphone within about a week. Having perpetual, low-resistance access to email, Signal, news, browser and podcasts and having my smartphone in constant physical proximity resulted in a notable acceleration in frequency of checking these apps. After a day or two, I began to find it difficult to leave my phone alone. I would put the phone in sleep mode, yet find myself picking it again, sometimes before even a minute was up. I invented a stream of reasons to check my phone and I found these impossible to resist, establishing a pattern of consistent little failures in discipline throughout the day.

Dealing with addictive urges is stressful. Notifications added to the tension.

On reflection, the main problem was the constant physical proximity of my smartphone. I charged it next to my bed, so it quickly became habit to read the news or listen to a podcast before bed, and check messages and the news first thing in the morning. When waiting for the bus or in a hotel lobby, I was on my smartphone. Sometimes I read my book, but the smartphone often won out in these short moments of boredom. I noticed my family members and I often just sat around checking our phones.

Conclusions

When I was still teaching high school, I used to travel to work by train. I remember looking around and seeing hundreds of people looking down at their little personal screen, every day. There was nothing to engage me on my feature phone, and the contrast was stark and a little dystopian. Now that I have tried the all in approach to my smartphone, I understand why people do this. It only took a couple of days for a compelling addiction to take hold, even while I was actively aware of it happening!

The single device approach to digital minimalism is not for me, because it led to this powerful addiction, which in turn led to an increase in restlessness and unnecessary tension. While I believe everyone experiences some form of addiction, mine being a sometimes unhealthy amount of TV couch surfing, it's probably better for you if you don't carry the source of your addiction everywhere you go, even into the bedroom.

People don't seem well-equipped to withstand the siren song of connectivity, with its entertainment, drama, news, information and personal intrigue on a single, portable device. So, while limiting your activities to one device may technically be a minimalism of sorts, having the spatial barriers that are created by spreading your activities over different physical devices seems a simpler and more reliable way to develop healthy tech and online habits.