I have decided to do an experiment.
After reading the books Think Like a Monk and Digital Minimalism the last weeks I want to investigate how affected I have become by digital apps in my everyday life and in regards to my chess training.
“Monks understand that routine frees your mind, but the biggest threat to that freedom is monotony. People complain about their poor memories, but I’ve heard it said that we don’t have a retention problem, we have an attention problem.”
― Jay Shetty, Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day
“The urge to check Twitter or refresh Reddit becomes a nervous twitch that shatters uninterrupted time into shards too small to support the presence necessary for an intentional life.”
― Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
I have previously looked into the subject on my YouTube channel in the videos: Using phones for chess practice? and Tracking Chess Training, 6 days of tracking every chess related activity.
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However, it feels like this pandemic has increased my use of Twitter and other phone apps in general, and I’m starting to think that it might also be hurting my ability to focus and concentrate. I have in the past two weeks also lost two online 90+30 games, so it can’t hurt to work towards obtaining a higher level of concentration and focus.
Cal Newport writes in his book that you should do a complete stop for 30 days and then introduce the things adding value back into your life. I will therefore commit to the following for the next 30 days:
Chess
+ In the 30 days experiment, I will only play longer (+15 min. games) online. No digital practice platforms or other online chess tools are allowed.
+ No engine use for analysis
+ I will post a diary here on the newsletter and game annotations on my blog
Everything else
+ Deletion of and no use of social media and news/entertainment apps on my phone
+ I can use the browser on my PC to check essentials, but not mindless checking of feeds.
I’m starting tomorrow. If you want to join leave a comment below!
Wish me luck :-)
Best,
Martin
How do you follow the Candidates tournament? Do you? Some analog way to follow it too? Only look at the list of moves? No twitch/youtube??
Hi Martin,
As I mentioned in a former reply to one of your posts, I am working through alle the workbooks of Steps method step 5. Steps 1, 2 and 3 are not only available as books, but also in a digital format (chess tutor 1, 2 and 3). Cor van Wingerden, (one of two creators of the stepsmethod, the other one is the late Rob Brunia) once explained to me that he preferred the paper version of the method for his students. Software invites the student to ‘guess’ the move because the software will give him immediate feedback. Instead of analyzing and selecting the move it all to often turns into guessing an erring and then guess again.
If you solve a page with puzzles on paper, write down the solution and check you answers after the page is finished (my current way of going through the workbooks), the analysis wil probably be more careful and complete. In a game the choice of a move is a proces of looking for moves, analyzing them and then verifying to see if you haven’t made a mistake. The last step is the first that suffers when I solve digital puzzles.
Since I started this stint of daily practice I have made another discovery. When I get stuck with a puzzle, it often helps when I get a chessboard on the table en setup the position. More than once I spotted the right move even during setting up the position. I am curious if other people have a similar experience.
Good luck with you digital diet!
Best,
Marino Kuper