Help me go more analogue

[Telephonelightflashing]

I've recently found myself in a hotel with no WiFi. After my initial disappointment at not watching netflix on my iPad- I spent mu time watching silly low stakes telly (come dine with me) reading and having a long bath in quiet and miraculously my brain felt calm for the first time in a few years.
This has really made me think about going more analogue at home. If you live a more analogue life at home do you recommend? I know there will be loads of snarky ones on here who will attempt to make this seem silly or obvious so what I'm really asking is if you have made the switch, how did you do it and did it help?
My current ideas are

1. Keep my phone in a basket by the door like an old landline would have been to stop it being In my hand constantly
2. Switch from Spotify and you tube to having the radio on live play (I was thinking of trying radio 4)

3 reach for a book or magazine instead of my phone

Have you done this and what do you lot recommend?

Have alternatives for the things you use your phone for e.g. wake up with a cheap alarm clock so you can leave your phone out of your bedroom.

This is my best strategy. Give me a sewing project and will forget about my phone and can sit in complete silence. It's amazing.

Can also recommend learning calligraphy, getting a dog (it has to be walked outside), exercising.

@Telephonelightflashing ....oooooh, don't come for Come Dine with Me ! A friend told me I could get whole episodes on YouTube to binge on (but with annoying ads) Shorts have lots of clips tho which always make me giggle / wince. If you're not a fan tho...🤷‍♀️
I am with you on replacing the screen in your hand. I am a craven R4 addict, but it's on the bones of it's arse right now, so a lot of the amazing programming has disappeared or on repeat, I still listen of course, The 'burble' - love that ! Plus there's always the Archers and Front Row ! Agree with PP's the history podcasts are great. Natalie Haynes 'Stands up for the Classics' I really enjoyed. Give it a whirl, girl 👏
Reading Is a problem now isnt't it ? I always had my nose in a book 'before times'. Following with interest, thanks for useful tips MN'ers.

I was at the dentist recently and of the 8 people in the waiting room I was the only one not on my phone. It was quite nice sitting there for 20 minutes thinking about what I could cook for tea or just looking at the posters. I took a book to a hospital appointment a few weeks ago.
Radio or an audio book before bed instead of my phone.
Limit MN to about 30/40 minutes. May do 20 minutes when I'm having a break at work and another 20 minutes in the evening but no more. Never use my phone though. I force myself to use a tablet/computer as it takes more of an effort. That means I have no 'fun' apps or even email on my phone.

Advice is also to put the phone in another room.

I bought a 'brick', it basically stops me using me phone during set hours and I have to go to the attic to scan it to unlock it. I've chosen 7am to 8.30am and 6pm to 8.30pm - basically when I see the kids Monday to Friday. It shouldn't be necessary but I realised my self control was shot. I also started reading really trashy, easy reading murder mysteries to get me back into reading before slowly upgrading to at least middle brow. Hopefully I'll get back to serious literature which I used to adore when I was young. My kids are 2 and 4 so options are limited but I try to pick up a game to play with them when we're bored or do colouring in with them - surprisingly therapeutic.
Although digital in a way, and the Amazon link is controversial, I love my Alexa as I can listen to music, podcasts etc and add things to my shopping list without reaching for my phone. Another benefit is the kids can play songs they choose without needing access to a screen. I also try and make TV intentional rather than mindless, we watch a different classic Disney film every weekend with popcorn.
Im still guilty of some doomscrolling and allowing screen time for the kids when something needs done.

This is a great thread OP. I was thinking myself yesterday at the library I rarely read because my mind always goes to the phone. I posted further up.

Also once when my charger wasn't working and phone was dead, it made me anxious being offline Abit.

I think I might start something going. Analogue life. Lol have to be online of course though ha.

I don't possess a smartphone.

There are very, very few things for which I need my husband to use his phone for me. One is street maps when visiting new places.
Another is Uber when we are on holiday without a car.
A third is a flower-identification app when we are walking in the countryside. But this last is hardly essential, and in any case I have a pocket flower book which just sits on the shelf.

I have a dumbphone for texting and phone calls. I have a digital camera, an MP3 player (which I seldom use), a printed road atlas in the car, and a laptop for whatever I want or need to do online. The laptop stays in the 'office' (spare bedroom) and doesn't come to the sofa with me in the evenings.

We watch BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 catch up, and Amazon Prime - we don't have any other TV subscriptions. I do value being able to pause a programme.
I also read books in the evening.

For those struggling to read Naomi Alderman has done a ‘couch to 5 k’ equivalent for reading on Substack ( I know you need to go online for this). It really encourages you to start a reading ‘habit’ and gradually increase it and includes reading suggestions.

This thread has got me thinking about getting a film camera and going back to the days when I had to wait to get the photos back.

Ha ha yes the waiting room and the bus. Think some people have also forgotten to talk to each other
Had a nice brief conversation with woman on bus yesterday. When I got off the bus I felt positive. I couldn't have done that if my head was down

Jigsaws
Wordsearches

Real ones, not online

Ive adopted the current fashion trend for wearing an old watch face on a chain around my neck. So I stop glancing at my phone to check the time and I look at the watch instead (obviously I could just wear the watch but it had been sitting broken in a drawer for decades and now makes a pretty pendant) Its hung upside down like a nurses watch

I sat in a very crowed hospital waiting room this morning and was the only one with a book rather than a phone. Plenty of people also playing video clips with the sound on..

We also keep bananagrams and a pack of cards on the kitchen table so that we can play a quick game rather than reach for our phones once we have eaten

I really like your idea of having a special place where you keep your phone like by front door so essentially it becomes like a landline, and you don't carry it around the house. I might experiment with that and see if I can stick to it.

I love playing the piano.

When cooking in the evening, I play CDs. I must have about 300 acquired over the years, all still perfect. Last night I made supper listening to Norah Jones 😊

I read books in front of the fire. I search iplayer and ITVX for new series, or find old series that when I watch them now, I see so much more of the plot.

And I've introduced DS to vintage stuff, recently converted him to Jasper Carrot & Billy Connelly.

I clear an hour a day for reading and put the phone on the other side of the room.

I've made up my mind that if I'm also looking at my phone while watching TV, clearly the TV show isn't really good enough to waste my time on, so it goes off. Don't have it as background - turn it on, watch what you're watching and turn it off again.

I've tried to go back to JUST listening to music, like when I was a teen. Lie down in the dark, close your eyes, listen to an album right through. Bit less successful on that one tbh.

Another vote for radio 4.

I never leave home without a book or the kindle (kindles are awesome) - I'm phobic about getting stuck somewhere with nothing to read. If in a waiting room or something, don't scroll mindlessly, get the book out.

What your brain spends most of its time on is what it will become. Try to limit the stuff that's just pure triviality.

That's so annoying with the sound on.

I’m not necessarily trying to go more analogue, but I am trying to cut down on any online activities that don’t feel enriching. The first change I’ve made is to try to set the tone for day as soon as I wake up, so instead of having a ten minute doom scroll whilst I muster up the energy to get out of bed I’ll read instead, or I’ll do a bit of an online crossword puzzle or wordle. Obviously the latter isn’t analogue but certainly better than mindlessly flicking through IG reels. I’ve also started to try to actively redirect myself if I’m reaching for my phone when I’m bored or looking for something to pass the time for 10 minutes. So reading again, and now take a book everywhere with me. I’ve also recently started learning how to draw and watercolour so that’s my go to activity if I’m at home.

Starting the day as I mean to go on is working for me, I did really struggle with reading initially as despite being an avid reader when younger my attention span is fucked, but I’ve really tried to push through that and it’s definitely improving.

We stopped watching TV. The day had so many hours in it now… I paint, make clothes, read, make candles

I'm a rare creature who sits in waiting rooms with books! To be fair, my books raise a lot less questions than the odd occasion when I've taken knitting out, but seeing someone in their twenties/thirties knitting is quite unusual, I suppose. Then I accidentally freak people out by having a conversation with them while knitting without looking at it...

I read a lot, do batch cooking with everything made from scratch, knit, have pets to keep me busy, a house and garden to do up, piano, viola, a couple of sewing machines to play with, a spinning wheel to master, and even just going to evening/weekend classes (ballroom, aerial silks, swimming, learning a language, beekeeping, etc.). My mother is more into drawing and watercolours, but when she stayed with me, she went for a look through my library and spent her evenings reading. She said that it was very peaceful without having a TV on in the background (I don't have one, which probably helps! If I do watch something, it's on my laptop). She still thinks that I have too many books, though!

Bump.

Would joining a book group help those posters who feel they've lost their reading mojo? I'm in a book group, and also never leave home without my Kindle and/or a book. I read my way through 16 rounds of chemo, and always read on the train.

I forgot to say in my earlier post that I love a jigsaw, and so those with a cup of tea and a podcast.

Thank you, I feel I'll probably need to do this

Whilst I have trouble with books and TV programmes, I do enjoy people/nature watching when I'm out and about. Does that mean there's hope for me?