17 ways I’m making my life more analog, from simple swaps to getting offline

My phone is not my friend. I’ve learned this lately with through some experiments in turning it off. The constant notifications really pull me out of reality, and the quick changes my mind has to make to pay attention to my phone for even just a second before switching back to the life in front of me is really kind of difficult.

And, that’s not even to start on my doomscrolling habits.

While I’m not cutting my phone out entirely (yet!) I’ve started to make some swaps that make sense for me. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

1. Put an alarm clock on my nightstand: An actual alarm clock that’s separate from a phone means that I don’t have to read notifications if I wake up at 3 a.m. and just want to know what time it is. I had one already, but the thrifts near me are overflowing with these.
2. Paper books from the library: I love my Kindle. But I’ve recently rediscovered paper books and I can’t get enough. The smell, the feel…IYKYK. I’d go broke if I bought every book I wanted to read, so I use the library. Speaking of…
3. Weekly library trips: When I was a kid, I was such a voracious reader that my mom or grandma would take me to the library almost every week. I’m trying to re-create that as an adult, and I go to pick up my holds, return last week’s stuff and see what I want. I usually go and treat it like I would a bookstore — at my local branch, I know where the nonfiction sections I like are and typically look for authors alphabetically in the fiction section, though sometimes I go in with a list. I also go here with my homemade coffee and my laptop when I want to work at a coffee shop but don’t want to spend money.
4. Make my book list on paper: This is a to-do still for me, but I want to put my TBR list on paper instead of in my phone. It’s currently in my library app, but I’d like to keep a separate notebook on my reading habits.
5. Writing down recipes: My mother-in-law had a shelf of cookbooks and hand-written recipes in her kitchen and I love the feel of that. I started writing down the recipes I’m often looking up and put them in a binder in my kitchen. I tend to use a lot of different recipes from across the internet, so putting them in one place is very helpful. I also want to try more cookbooks this winter!
6. Using a paper planner: Maybe this is a vestige from elementary school, but I love a paper to-do list and feel so much more accomplishment after I physically cross something off my list than I ever could digitally. I try to start each week by looking at my online calendars for any appointments or meetings and then writing them in. I start each morning making to-do lists for each day. I have an undated planner from Muji right now for my weekly planning, so it helps to set up the week as you go.

7. Swapping streaming for DVDs: I’m tired of watching ads on streaming services I’m already paying money for. Speaking of, I’m tired of paying for them. I recently thrifted a DVD player (and remote, which turned out to be the difficult part of thrifting a DVD player) and I got a few discs from the library. I’ve made a small list of movies and shows I’d like to own, and have been looking for them at the thrifts and at Half-Price Books’ clearance section. I’m definitely ISO anything Studio Ghibli and want to complete my Twilight saga collection this winter.

8. Getting rid of Spotify: I cancelled Spotify at the end of October. I switched to Apple Music thanks to a credit card deal, but I don’t want that to be a permanent swap. My ultimate goal is to own my music library. I still have to figure out how to do this — both the acquiring and the using — but it’s something I feel strongly that I want to do. It’s one of my winter projects.

9. Keeping my old car: I’ve been lusting after a newer car, but I’m avoiding it for two reasons. Firstly, I don’t want an iPad in the dashboard. Secondly, I don’t want a car payment. So I’m sticking with my 2015 Chevy plug-in hybrid. Ten years old for a car isn’t that old, but it isn’t by any means new. There’s a CD player and a built-in navigation system, too. She just hit 100k miles and I’ve had relatively few issues, so props to her. She’s staying around.

10. Making a computer room: When I was a kid, one of my friend’s houses had a computer room, a french-door seperated room off the living area that had two desktop computers. We watched YouTube and downloaded music for hours in that room. Recently, My husband and I bought the house we’re living in and it has three (3!) bedrooms. I’ve more or less turned one of the rooms into a computer room a la the early 2000s. I recently acquired a Mac Mini to replace the old laptop I bought as a freelancer in 2018 that now barely functions. I had an extra computer monitor from when one of my corporate job laid me off and let me keep it — so kind! — and we had a mouse and keyboard already that I love. Not only was this setup significantly cheaper than a new Macbook but it also has the permanence of being in one place. I’m writing this from it!

11. Using the record player: I got a record player from my parents’ house. It’s a 1950s model that my grandparents bought new for their house. Now it’s in mine and that feels incredibly special. I like to turn on something while I cook, and I can hear this from the kitchen instead of turning on music on my phone and using Bluetooth. It’s also hilarious to think that this old record player from the 50s is playing Charli XCX’s Brat.

12. Walking with no music, podcasts, etc.: Taking a walk without any distractions has been a game changer for me. Just me and the dog. It makes me notice small things. Walking around to see the Christmas lights in the evening has been so peaceful. I hear the birds more, the creek near my house flowing fast because of the snow melt. I stop and talk to neighbors, and just in general think more when I don’t have someone talking or singing in my ear.

13. Board games: Our friend group has a board game night once a month, and we all just show up and hang out and play. While I don’t always get into the long winded games (Wingspan, looking at you), I will play the shorter ones or just hang out and chat while others play it. We’ve also been expanding our collection at home slowly through thrifting and visiting our local game store.

14. Card games: My husband is a casual but good Magic the Gathering player, and while I’m not so skilled, we’ll play every once in a while in the evening. It’s interactive and forces me to use a part of my brain I don’t typically use.

15. Dog park instead of doomscrolling: I used to spend a lot of the time between when I’m done with work and when my husband came home doomscrolling. Just endlessly and hopelessly lost in TikToks. Instead, I’ve been taking our golden retriever to the dog park, and it’s made me feel so much lighter. I love watching him play with the other dogs and I get some in-person interaction with people on days when I may not have had much otherwise.

16. Using an actual camera: My husband always carries a camera — typically the compact Fujifilm X100. We also have a Nikon body and glass we use for portrait photography. I’ve started using these too just in my daily life to capture things instead of my phone camera. But even an old point and shoot does the trick, it means I don’t have to get out the phone.

17. Blogging instead of social media: I love sharing my thoughts with the world. But putting them all on social media isn’t for me. Instead of running straight to Instagram or another platform, I’ve decide to collect my thoughts here.

That’s it for now! Do any of these resonate with you? Leave a comment below if there’s something you think I should try. Or, let me know if there’s something from this post that you want to implement!