Inside: Small ways to bring the physical world back into your home and go less digital on purpose.
There’s something about the digital world that feels full of promise. The apps, the timers, the organized folders. Photos in chronological order, sorted by face and location. The automation, the efficiency, the apps that control your apps. The trackers, the chatbots, the everything-at-your-fingertips of it all.
But here’s the danger (or really, just the reality… the digital world has become the world we live in. Not a tool for our real lives. The life itself.
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This year…what if you stepped back from it? Not because it doesn’t work. Not because the screen time is giving us headaches. But because we want something real.
You probably already know where to begin.
- Print the recipe. If you find something online you want to make, print it. Stick it in a binder or a drawer. Use it with flour on your hands instead of tapping a screen to keep it awake.
- Stop worshiping efficiency. Let go of the apps that connect to other apps. The automations. The trackers. Not because they don’t work—but because you don’t have to care.
- Cancel the music subscription. Listen to the radio. Let a song find you instead of curating the perfect playlist. Enjoy what comes.
- Go to the bank. Or the grocery store. Talk to a person. Ask a question. Get help from someone who isn’t a chatbot reading a script from a screen three states away.
- Bring a book when you’re waiting. At the orthodontist, at practice, in the carpool line. Let your kids see you turning pages instead of staring at a screen.
- Set a monthly photo date. Order prints. Hang them up. Put them in an album. Make it a habit instead of a someday.
- Buy the paperback. Not the Kindle version. Set it on a shelf. One day your kid will pick it up and fall in love with something you forgot you left there.
- Pick up encyclopedias at a yard sale. How else will your kids stumble across something they didn’t know existed? You can’t search for what you don’t know to look for.
- Shop for a gift in person. Ask the salesperson what they’d recommend. Tell them about the person you’re buying for. Let them help you. Thank them like you mean it.
- Use a paper calendar. Hang it in the kitchen. Write on it with a pen. Let everyone see what’s coming.
- Keep a notebook. For ideas, lists, meal plans, whatever. Something that doesn’t need a charger.
- Send something handwritten. A thank-you note. A birthday card. A “thinking of you” with a stamp on it. It takes two minutes and it means more than any text ever will.
- Make the call. When the text thread is getting long. When the topic is complicated. When you just miss their voice. Pick up the phone and talk like people used to.
- Wear a watch. Even a smart one. Anything that tells you the time without pulling you into your phone.
- Use a kitchen timer. The kind you twist. Because every time you set a timer on your phone, you end up checking something else and forgetting why you picked it up.
- Get an alarm clock. Even if you just like the way it looks on your nightstand. It’s one less reason to sleep next to your phone.
- Try cash envelopes. For groceries, for fun money, for whatever category you always overspend. There’s something about watching the envelope empty that no app can replicate.
- Keep a family address book. So when your kid needs Grandma’s address, they can go look it up themselves. You don’t have to be the keeper of every piece of information.
- Buy a dictionary. When someone asks what a word means, point them to the shelf. Let them flip through and find it. They’ll see ten other words on the way, and maybe learn how to spell!
- Buy your kids CDs. You can find them for almost nothing on Facebook Marketplace. They get music they can own, and you don’t have to worry about what the algorithm plays next.
- Same with DVDs. No suggested videos. No autoplay rabbit holes. Just the movie they picked, start to finish.
- Write your grocery list by hand. Organize it by aisle. You’ll move through the store faster and you won’t be staring at your phone in the produce section.
- Memorize a phone number. Try learning your best friend’s phone number by heart again. Even if just to prove you can.
- Turn on the TV for news and weather. I know this sounds ridiculous, but there’s something cozier about TV than scrolling on your phone.
- Go inside the store. Even if it’s just Walmart. Park the car, get some sun, brush your hair. Say hello to someone. See if it cheers you up more than clicking “add to cart” ever did.
You don’t have to measure it. Don’t calculate the time saved or the money spent. Just try one thing and see how it feels. A little calmer, maybe. A little slower. Not everything at your fingertips…but something real in your hands.
Gosh, the crazy thing is – this is pretty much my life in Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 😄 and not by choice. We just don’t have the convenience of so much online life. 🥰🥰
it is a blessing in its own way. you have real life 🙂
I also do a lot of these, I greatly like the idea of the photo day. All day just sorting and looking at photos. Was just at a memorial and realized how important these photos maybe after I am gone. I’ll keep my you tube music because music on the radio is iffy at most where we live. And my suggestion is to put your recipes in a sheet protector, then store them.
yes sheet protector is the way!!!!
Hi there. I’m a big fan of your blog, and read pretty much everything you post. I especially keep going back to your grandmacore articles!
I’d like to say that I absolutely love the idea of going analog, but to add another side of the coin, I couldn’t imagine having to buy physical copies of cd’s, dvd’s and books, etc. We (in South Africa on a single income with 4 children), just couldn’t afford it. The only subsription we have is Spotify, no TV or show/movie subscriptions. Also, keeping such a large inventory of stuff would be anxiety inducing for me.
For me, I guess, it’s finding balance. Clocks and an analog watch, yes! Journals, a pretty calender, a ticking timer, yes! But I’d definitely like the balance and simplicity of having old movies on my hard drive and not having to worry about my collection of cd’s being unpacked and scratched up by toddlers while I’m nursing the baby 😅
Thanks for another great one!
hey eliyah! I would say you are ahead of most people there! I was thinking having a physical dvd set instead of multiple streaming services. since you already don’t have those, you’re doing great 🙂 thanks for the comment.
Yes!!!!!!! I do about half this list already. Yes!!!! Love it. So tired of trying to buy solutions and efficiency being tied to technology.
love it Cortney! very wise 🙂
Your timing is wonderful! I love the convenience of having my calendar, to do list, shopping list, the weather, etc. all in my pocket, but I’ve been trying to do more with paper and pen because I want to set a better example for my kids. They don’t know if I’m on my phone to look at a recipe for dinner, or for entertainment. Thanks for all the ideas on how to cut back on even productive screen time!
Melina yes that was a huge consideration for me too, always being seen on my phone. And I think freeing yourself from productive vs non productive is a big mental relief! 🙂
Thank-you!
This is the brave stuff. This is the real stuff. This is needed stuff.
From this stuff we have hope of experiencing meaning with the days we have left in the world into which we have been born.
Bringing back real living requires conscious, daily, deliberate choices. Bringing back real into lives is worth it all!
BLESSINGS to all who hunger for what is real and what is true.
thank you so much Candace ❤️
These are great ideas. In addition to less screen time, I like the point about not needing to be the keeper of all the information. When I find a recipe online I like, I write it out on a recipe card. I have this handy little thing that stands on my kitchen counter that is a blackboard on one side and has a clip on the other. Each week I write out our meals on the blackboard and put the relevant recipe cards in the clip. My son uses it to know how to set the table for his chore, and occasionally if I’ve gotten held up with something, my husband has been able to start on dinner by using the recipe card. They are also great for cooking with my son so he can easily follow along. I always have my son write thank you cards and we’ve often done paper party invitations, but for some reason I had not thought about an address book! I am going to get one to at least put in the people we are likely to thank and/or invite to a party so that he can do that part of it, too.
I love reading your emails every morning with my coffee! Absolutely LOVE this! After retiring last year, I have gone back to pen and paper❤️
thank you Cindy!yes!
I’ve recently bought an old ticking clock to put in the bedroom, and we LOVE it. Thank you for the article, Katie. You sometimes mention printed photos in your posts; would really appreciate if you shared your thoughts and experience in organizing family archives — albums, photo books, etc. Your to-the-point and sensible approach is always helpful.
hi Anastasia, I’m so glad you enjoyed the article. I think a whole article about family photos is something I will work on next. Thanks for the idea.