Digital – Live Life Digital

How the Digital World is Impacting the Spread of the Coronavirus

By Travis Duncan | March 15, 2020March 16, 2020 by Travis Duncan

As February crept onward, the stock market hit an all-time high, unemployment was at a historical low, and the economy was chugging along as though nothing could stop it. Suddenly, the onward global march of the coronavirus (COVID-19) stopped everything, including the financial markets, in its tracks.

As a fiscally minded individual, I cringed as I slowly watched my 401k and investments erode, completely losing sight of the more important long term implications of the virus. As the markets continue to fluctuate, I’m finding it hard not to cash out as I see daily punches being landed on my investment portfolio. So to turn an unhealthy obsession on the financial impact of the coronavirus into a more healthy dialogue, I believe it’s necessary to take a look at how we’re using technology to deal with these situations.

So how has the digital world shaped our reaction to such events? Let’s take a look at four major areas…

Digital Living Minimalism Simplicity

The Heart of Home Automation is Simplicity

By Travis Duncan | October 27, 2019October 27, 2019 by Travis Duncan

If one word best embodies the goal of home automation – it should be simplicity. Such a statement seems to lack insight. After all, isn’t the point of home automation to take the complexity in our lives and simplify it?

Sure it is, but I’m not talking about achieving the end goal of simplicity for our home. I’m talking about baking in simplicity from the start.

Digital Living Home Automation

Guide to Getting Started with Home Automation

By Travis Duncan | September 2, 2019September 2, 2019 by Travis Duncan

Turning your home into a digital oasis doesn’t require you to shell out thousands of dollars upfront, nor does it require Geek Squad installation or hunting down your neighborhood tech whiz. In fact, the easiest way to get started swimming in the waters of home automation is simply dipping your toes into the shallow end and eventually wading into deeper waters.

Here’s a simple approach to finding out if home automation is right for you.

Digital Living Fitness Frugality

Three Steps to Fast Track Your Digital Fitness and Not Break the Bank

By Travis Duncan | August 18, 2019August 25, 2019 by Travis Duncan

I’d hardly call myself a fitness fanatic. In fact, if you saw some of the foods that make up my diet you might think I’m the exact opposite. That being said, I do get my steps in on a daily basis, and with the help of technology, I’m able to funnel that right into my digital life, ensuring that my caloric intake rarely exceeds my caloric output and that my weight stays in check.

To capture my fitness vitals, I previously used an expensive Fitbit Ionic. It played music, monitored heart rate, worked in water, and even made payments. After using the device religiously for over a year, I realized only a few of its features were all that valuable to me: heart rate monitoring, step counting, a moderate level of water resistance, and more than a day’s battery life.

So, when my Fitbit finally went out of warranty and bit the dust, I decided it was time to turn to a more frugal fitness approach.

Digital Living

Three Lessons You Can Learn From Agile Development and Apply to Digital Living

By Travis Duncan | August 10, 2019August 10, 2019 by Travis Duncan

Those of us who work in software development or project management are likely quite familiar with many of the practices of Agile Software Development, and while those practices (or ceremonies) are quite useful in guiding software development teams towards building sustainable, high quality, user-driven software, the concepts are equally applicable to digital living.

Parallels can be drawn between tens, if not hundreds of different aspects of software development and life in general, but there are three particular areas of agile software development that I’ve found to be the most fruitful when applied to digital living.

Digital Living Frugality

Ditch Digital Subscriptions to Save Yourself Some Cash

By Travis Duncan | July 21, 2019August 1, 2019 by Travis Duncan

I’m not exactly sure where the subscription model started, but the cable companies of the 1980s seemed the most adept at solidifying the public’s willingness to pay a recurring fee for content as a service. Sure, utility companies had been doing it for years, but those could be considered necessities under the eye of the public sector.

Then, the Netflix addicted, Amazon Prime-fueled millennial generation made the subscription service a staple of American living. You can now subscribe to services that manage your clothing, meals, shaving needs, and much more.

Digital Living

Why Walmart Grocery Isn’t the Future of Grocery – Yet

By Travis Duncan | July 20, 2019August 1, 2019 by Travis Duncan

For as long as I can remember, Aldi has been my first choice for groceries. The only knock I had on Aldi – at least in relation to my three major values of cost, control, and convenience – was the convenience aspect. That’s where Walmart Grocery Pickup came into my life (as noted in my previous article on Four Focus Areas for Digital Frugalism). Over the last month, with the exception of one week of Aldi relapse, I consistently turned to Walmart Grocery to satisfy my weekly grocery shopping needs. While I estimated I could save about a buck on my weekly grocery bill by going to Aldi, I found that Walmart better aligned with my value for convenience. By my calculations, that 30-minute time savings more than justified the difference.

So in the battle between cost, convenience, control, Walmart was winning the battle of convenience, Aldi retained the cost crown, with the deciding factor coming down to control. More specifically, this meant the grocery provider I would anoint as my go-to moving forward would hinge on how much control the two gave me over my own life.

Digital Living Frugality

Seven Easy Hacks to Using Amazon Without Letting Amazon Use You

By Travis Duncan | July 17, 2019August 1, 2019 by Travis Duncan

At some point in our lives, we throw in the towel and admit defeat. More specifically, we throw our wallet to monolith that is Amazon and admit convenience is more important than cost, privacy, and pretty much everything else in life.

And then I realized, you don’t have to leave your wallet open to enjoy the benefits of Amazon. In essence, you can pocket the $119 that you would normally spend each year on prime and yet still benefit from what Amazon has to offer. Here’s how:

Audio Digital Living Minimalism

Six Simple Steps to Declutter Your Digital Listening Skills

By Travis Duncan | July 15, 2019September 8, 2019 by Travis Duncan

In Four Focus Areas for Frugal Digitalism, I talked about how to save money by taking advantage of free audio opportunities. Free content, however, is only valuable if you’re mindful of how and why you listen. In this article, I lay out a framework for improving your digital listening habits and getting more out of the time you spend with your digital audio content.

Digital Living Frugality

Four Fun Focus Areas For Frugal Digitalism

By Travis Duncan | July 7, 2019August 1, 2019 by Travis Duncan

Many millennials and digital natives have migrated their lifestyle online and in doing so have paid the price of convenience. Such convenience has come in the form of a monthly subscription fee to get access to craveable content. While a single subscription fee may have only a minor impact on one’s budget, when coupled with subscription fees across different digital services, the budget impact becomes more severe. This is further exacerbated by the rising subscription costs being charged by service providers and media conglomerates who have realized content is king and have gone on a spending spree in an effort to acquire digital content.

Thankfully, a convenient digital lifestyle doesn’t need to come with a high price tag. In many areas of your digital life, there’s no need to trade cash for convenience as you progressively shift your lifestyle online. In this article you’ll find ways to practice sustainable frugality in various areas of your digital life. This means getting what you need without borrowing login credentials from friends, illegally downloading the content you love, or managing multiple e-mail accounts in order to rotate through free trials offered by many digital services.