Unplug a Little: Finding Your Way Back to an Analog Life

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like my phone knows more about my day than I do. It pings, it buzzes, it suggests, it reminds — and half the time, it interrupts me right when I’m about to do something real. If you’re reading this, I bet you know that feeling too. So let’s talk about ways to live a bit more analog in this bright, buzzing, beeping world.

Don’t get me wrong — I love the internet for what it brings: connection, ideas, opportunities. But I love a blank page more. I love a warm cup of coffee with no notifications. I love the feeling of paint drying slow under my brush, the scratch of a pencil on real paper, the soft thump of a book shutting when you’re done.

So how do we make a little more space for that?

Here are a few ways I’ve been trying to live a more analog life — maybe you’ll want to try them too.

1. Make your art by hand. This one’s obvious coming from me. Sketch on scrap paper. Try a new medium that doesn’t need a screen. Collage with old magazines. Carve a potato stamp. Sit outside with a sketchbook and let your mind wander slower than a scroll. Your eyes and your spirit will thank you.

2. Send more snail mail. Postcards, handwritten letters, a doodle folded into an envelope — people love it because it’s rare now. You don’t need fancy stationery (though I won’t judge you if you get some). Write big, messy, crooked. Stick on a stamp and surprise someone’s mailbox.

3. Keep a real calendar or a journal. There’s something grounding about crossing off a day with an ink pen or scribbling three sentences about what made you smile. A digital planner pings at you — a paper one sits patiently and listens.

4. Learn a hands-on craft. Crochet, woodworking, gardening, tie-dye, calligraphy, baking bread — pick something that puts your hands to work without a battery in sight. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to be posted online.

5. Take a tech-free walk. Leave your phone at home (or at least zipped up deep in a bag). Notice things you’d usually scroll right past: the wildflowers in the ditch, the neighbors’ windchimes, the sound your shoes make on gravel.

6. Host an unplugged gathering. Invite a few friends over for a paint night, a puzzle swap, a campfire, or just coffee on the porch. Make it a point to keep phones away for an hour or two — the conversation changes when nobody’s half-checked out.

7. Practice doing one thing at a time. It’s so normal now to half-listen while half-watching while half-scrolling. Pick one thing — a meal, a conversation, a book — and give it your whole, analog self.

A more analog life doesn’t mean throwing your phone in the bayou (though some days, tempting). It just means making room for the simple, hands-on, human moments that remind us we’re here, not just online.

So here’s your gentle nudge: pick one little thing this week. Unplug a little. Make something messy. Write something crooked. Sit somewhere quiet. Call it your tiny rebellion against the infinite scroll.

If you do, tell me about it — with a postcard, if you’re feeling brave.

Stay analog, friends.

-Stef (Free Range Hippie)