Digital Minimalism in Nursing Leadership

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

Last week, I attend the American Organization of Nurse Executives meeting in San Diego. I love networking at this conference because I have the opportunity to talk with so many leaders. I asked one new manager about her challenges. Initially, she told me that it was all about staffing but then she quickly laughed and said – no not really – my biggest challenge is that I feel I am constantly glued to my cellphone. I am reading text messages from staff 24/7, looking at Twitter and Facebook. I asked her if she had tried to set some boundaries around this. She had tried but was unsuccessful she told me. She was just so stressed about trying to do a good job. Ultimately, she knew that this behavior could result in her own burnout.

What this nurse manager is experiencing is not unusual. Cal Newport recently authored an important book on the topic of digital minimalism, and the need to set boundaries around technology. He offers compelling evidence that the anxiety and stress that we now see in our teenagers and young children are driven by their constant use of social media and conversation via text messaging. He does not dispute the usefulness of our smartphones and tablets but rather how they can become all-consuming if we let it happen. He makes a compelling case for leadership communication that is more conversation centric rather than electronic.

Newport defines digital minimalism as having a philosophy in technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support what you value – and then being content with missing out on everything else. For the young manager discussed above, this is what Newport would recommend:

Define your technology rules – in order to change your behavior, you need to observe what you are doing now and commit to change. This might mean reading texts only twice a day before 6 PM on weekdays and then no texts after that time or on weekends. It could also mean that this manager does not go on either the unit Facebook page or the personal Facebook pages of any of her staff.
Take a 30-day break – make the rules and then enforce them for 30 days. He advises that the first week will be hard but you should also closely observe your stress level and how it will decrease.
Reintroduce only the technologies that prove essential for communication and place limits on how much you use them.

Newport points out that digital minimalists are less stressed than the rest of the population. They also tend to spend much less money and own many fewer things than their peers. The actions he describes require intentionality but they also have the potential in raising our personal wellness. After listening to this young manager, I am convinced that this is a conversation that we need to have on our leadership teams but seldom do. Nurse manager turnover is on the rise – this could be one small step to help young leaders set boundaries and make the role more satisfying.

Read to Lead

Newport, C. (2019). Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. New York: Penguin Publishers.

Read Rose Sherman’s new book available now – The Nurse Leader Coach: Become the Boss No One Wants to Leave