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While enjoying my weekend morning coffee, curled up like a cat in the sun on my performance velvet chaise lounge, reading a local paper, I noticed it was difficult, almost painful to get through a full article.
The first article, although interesting and detailing the efforts to save neon signs in my city, just didn’t hold my attention. The second was about a musician relocating to another country, up my alley, as I love travel and often fantasize about moving abroad. Yet, halfway through, I turned the page. The third was the story of local coffee shops supporting global coffee culture, lovely! I skimmed, at best, through this one.
It was then that I found myself mindlessly browsing the ad section. How did I end up here? I’m not sure that I belong. I love perusing printed matter over a cup of joe. My attention span apparently no longer does.
My remorse over not finding the joy in reading these days has been prominent, and the decline in my cognition and attention is obvious. Winter was especially hard this year. Indoors more than I like, filling the liminal spaces with endless scrolling. It has taken a toll on my mental health. When the awareness hit and I regained a sense of self control in my winter cocoon, an idea formed. I have given it a name. The Analogue project. This idea has inspired me to take baby steps to integrate it into my daily habits and to share it with others.
Over the years, I have noticed that I often tap into a collective consciousness with my ideas. This one aligns with that pattern in my life too. My friends, the world, and social media are embracing a similar sentiment currently. For me, this is a project that is personal, but it’s also a global movement. I am not the only one noticing these things and thinking about ways to change the trajectory of my brain being fully hijacked by a digitalized society. That is why I chose analogue as opposed to “analog.” It is meant for everyone and the word analogue feels full, like it encompasses more.
Once the awareness and the weight of it set in, I knew that the only way to proceed was to initiate change. I began to brainstorm and to look into options as well as research to support me in facilitating these changes.
I came up with a list of a few real tangible applications to focus on in order to improve attention span, cognitive function, and mental health, and began the task of implementing these:
1. I have ordered the news in print again, delivered to my door rather than reading it mostly online. I wanted the weight and the smell of the paper, the ink on my fingers instead of the cramp that I get in the bones of my hands from holding and typing on my phone.
2. I am making my smart phone, a phone not a computer, deleting all the unnecessary apps. I am keeping GPS, email, banking, and apps that I use for travel. I still have the internet in case of emergencies. The rest, I can create an intentional moment to sit down and use a computer (i.e. social media). I really considered the idea of a true “dumb phone” but decided that it did not work for me as an avid traveller. I awoke out of state recently to a phone that had called it quits overnight. It was the day of my return flight and it proved difficult to navigate my way home in this day and age—although, I made it!
3. I turned off notifications for the remaining apps on my phone, including my email. It makes the compulsion to check my phone for no reason much easier. And I avoid the continuous distractions while using my phone to actually communicate. This also inspired me to clean out my inbox and unsubscribe to so many promotional messages that I receive but never actually use.
4. Getting the phones out of the bedroom. I am still working on this one; it may be the hardest one. Buying a digital clock instead. Replacing the scrolling and blaring blue light in the dark with an evening book and a warm glow from the bedside lamp. Eliminating the constant emf radiation while I sleep and allowing my brain and nervous system to restore and repair like our bodies were originally wired to do.
5. Finding community again, IRL. Coffee dates with friends, workshops, live music, going outside, calling to say hello. The latter one has proved to be difficult as not too many respond to an out of the blue phone call these days, myself included. But I am not giving up! This particular goal has been a resolution of mine for 2026 and much of 2025. COVID-19 took this from me, and I’m getting it back!
6. Accountability. Sharing my goals and remaining open to support and ideas. I have spoken with my family about this project, my husband and children, as well as community. Maybe they will join “the movement” too! Lord knows, I need accountability to make this a reality. My family reluctantly embraces it, I am guessing, mostly because of my passionate and constant chatter about the subject. Yet they seem to know too of its necessity. Does this feel relevant to you as well?
7. Connecting with nature. With spring here, this one will be so much more accessible for me. Nature helps us to reset, engaging our senses and encouraging mindfulness. It lowers stress levels and improves focus. Natural light, environments, and real-world experiences soothe our nervous system helping reduce anxiety, brain fog, and digital dependency.
When I was young and in school we spoke about the future and dreamed of what it might be like. Flying cars, digital technology, futuristic fashion and design. A society that I can now say does not excite me. We built time capsules to bury in the ground as proof of who we were.
Maybe the future we dreamed of as children isn’t meant to be faster and brighter. Maybe it is about returning to being human and the macrocosm of what that means. By finding meaning in the micro and mundane.
I know these steps I have created as a template for this project may sound simple, but it will take some time and practice to make a daily habit of not reaching for my phone. Its going to be a journey. Years of conditioning got me here, but I believe that intentional unlearning and conscious replacement will pull me out of the “digital decay” loop that I’ve been living in.
Now, I’d like to re visit that time capsule, to crawl inside. To find the joys that still exist there. There are so many more reasons that the Analogue project has become a new passion for me and many more yet to be discovered.
Will you join me on this journey of feeling like a human again? As I travel the world and traverse my own state of being whether abroad or in my own backyard, it is my goal to uncover those joys and to connect others with the often hidden gems of “analog” living.
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