Analog activities have some serious mental health benefits. Here are some tips for embracing an analog mindset and ideas for enjoyable screen-free time.
Screens are designed to be addictive, and they’ve done their job well. Endless scrolling can leave you feeling drained, irritated, and scattered. Our attention is one of our most valuable forms of energy — and we give it away day after day. One way to help reclaim your attention is to prioritize analog activities.
If you feel the urge to live a more analog life, that’s your humanity speaking. “Digital brain rot,” doomscrolling, and shortened attention spans are now common topics in conversation for a reason. Most of us are feeling it.
If you want to prioritize your peace, increase joy, creativity, and critical thinking, and reclaim control over your attention, daily screen-free time is key.
Here are some ideas and tips for going analog this winter (and, honestly, year-round).
These mindset tips and habits can help you live a more analog life, beyond just doing an “analog activity” once in a while:
Length (of content) matters: Make an effort to consume more long-form content (a magazine article, essay, or book), and you’ll start rebuilding your ability to pay attention beyond the world of 15- to 60-second videos.Don’t scroll in bed: Keeping your bedroom phone-free will help you rest, reduce stress, and encourage intimacy. Embrace boredom: This enhances creativity and breaks the cycle of feeling like you constantly need to reach for your phone. Retraining your brain to feel normal in stillness may take a little while, but it is worthwhile.Instant isn’t always better: Manual tasks are an opportunity to slow down and unlearn the need for constant instant gratification. There is value in the process.Monotask: Doing one thing at a time builds focus and opens space in your brain for new thoughts. Monotasking and analog activities go hand in hand.Use analog timers: Hour glasses, 20-minute candles, or retro kitchen timers, for example.Embrace physical media: listen to vinyl, CDs, and cassette tapes; read books and magazines.
Here is a list of ideas to get you started!
If you’re feeling cozy
Make a handwritten recipe book instead of just saving recipes on your phone.Write a handwritten letter. You could also join a snail mail club or find a pen pal.Rearrange your space.Get a little traditional AM/FM radio and use it around your house.Build LEGO, play board games, or try crossword puzzles. Studies show that kids are more social when playing analog games compared to digital. That also goes for adults, and especially autistic people.Try a new craft or so-called “grandma hobby” such as knitting, crochet, needlepoint, or jigsaw puzzles.Try any other number of creative hobbies, such as cake decorating, coloring books, calligraphy, painting, origami, soap making, candle making, or sculpting.Discover or rediscover the joy of reading physical books. Smell the pages, buy special pens and tabs for annotating, make your own bookmarks.Start an indoor herb garden.Try restoring a piece of furniture.Spend some cozy time in the kitchen: Make soup, bake bread, brew tea, or make a simmer pot!Practice gentle yoga, tai chi, or pilates.Try art journaling or gratitude journaling.Have breakfast in bed. Romanticize it with a pretty tray, your favorite mug, and a cute tea towel.Cozy with your critters! If you have pets, spend some time simply taking in the joy of their company without any other distractions.
If you’d like to get out of the house
Volunteer to walk dogs or spend time with cats at your local shelter.Take yourself to a cat cafe.Go to a nature center and make use of their trails.Take a local class to feel the presence of community while learning something new (maybe a new language or an art skill).Tour a museum and keep your phone on silent in your pocket or bag.Join an in-person book club.Read a book at your local library.Go for a walk, or try snowshoing, birdwatching, stargazing, or cloudwatching.Sit in a cafe with a book or journal and allow your mind to wander as you people-watch.Go thrifting, antiquing, or estate sale hunting.Try photography with an actual film camera.Or don’t capture it. You don’t always need proof that you saw the sunset, ate the meal, or wore the outfit. In fact, constantly recording can mess with your long-term memory of your experiences — this is known as the photo-taking impairment effect.
The stress and anxiety of constantly being tied to our digital devices is at an all-time high. Screens aren’t going anywhere, and most of us have to “keep up with it all” at least for the sake of keeping our jobs, but there are ways to take back precious moments of our attention by embracing some analog time each day.