Halfway Through an Analog Year
Taking Another Look at the Analog Project
The trend of going analog has come and gone, but for many of us, the habits we have built are here to stay. Back in December I wrote the first of many articles for The Analog Project series. I was strongly motivated by a sudden awareness of how much time I was losing to screens. With each passing year of my life, the value of time becomes more and more apparent. Even though my screen time wasn’t outrageous, the minutes were adding up to an uncomfortable number for me. I decided to make intentional decisions toward going analog, starting with lowering my dependence on my smart phone.
Since half of the year of analog has passed, I want to evaluate where I’m at with this lifestyle shift and share with you what I have enjoyed as well as changes I want to make.
Smart Phone Adjustments
I had a dumb phone until college, so I have considered going back to it. The problem is, there are so many inconveniences that would arise (downtown parking, maps, group texts, etc.). I figured starting my journey with the least amount of friction possible would be a better way to keep my motivation up. I chose small changes over a cold turkey approach. Six months later, I am still considering getting a dumb phone, but for now my smart phone is still functional and I am not going to spend money on a new thing until I absolutely must.
Instead of ditching my smart phone completely, I began working toward decentralizing it. For me that meant downloading a free app called “OLauncher” which completely transformed the format of my phone screen. Instead of a colorful screen full of app icons, I was looking at a black background with only white text listing the names of my apps.
My experience with OLauncher has been good overall. When I unlock my phone I am met with a black-and-white list of apps that are much less visually appealing than colorful icons. I have to scroll and search alphabetically for the app I want to access. The ones I waste the most time on are lost within a long list rather than waiting at the quick-access bar at the bottom of the screen. This works to curb my compulsion to open Instagram reels, but only slightly. Still, I think that since the app is free, and it does help a little, it’s worth using.
I am thankfully at the point where my notebooks, television, and movies are much more appealing to me than my phone when I’m looking to decompress. However, the compulsion to reach for my phone first thing in the morning or when I’m experiencing a negative emotion hasn’t gone away. It’s honestly alarming how deeply the habit is entrenched in my brain. I still reach for my phone in an overstimulating shop or when I start to feel anxiety building up in my chest. So all of that is to say, halfway through the year, I’m still working to internalize the importance of sitting in the discomfort of life.
Analog Clocks
I use an analog alarm clock each morning, that has been a great change. Knowing the alarm only goes off once and that it doesn’t have a snooze feature has trained me to rise at the first “BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!”. I’ll admit, I miss the snooze feature and am considering buying a digital alarm clock, but for now the hand-me-down one will do.
I also wear the same watch I’ve been wearing since January. I found it at a thrift store and purchased a new battery for it. I’m pretty well in the habit of checking my wrist for the time rather than reaching for my phone. I highly recommend an analog watch because I’ve rekindled my ability to quickly tell time on an analog clock at a glance. It’s also interesting to think of time as more of a bit more abstract. It’s “about a quarter til four” rather than “precisely 3:48”. It’s a silly thing, but it makes me feel more flexible in a world of highly rigid schedules.
Physical Media
I haven’t used Spotify since December and I do not miss it at all. I have been slowly building my music library through Bandcamp, thrifted cd’s, and a Youtube music subscription (which I am considering getting rid of soon). I keep my iPod with me most of the time but I still stream music from Youtube on my phone sometimes. Building my music library has been a very intentional and fun process. It has helped me slow down and think deeper about what music I like or what I’m in the mood for, without algorithmic input.
My partner, Damien, recently built a DVD shelf for our living room. That’s how many DVD’s we’ve collected— enough to warrant a whole new shelf. We received all of my mom’s old movies, the ones I grew up watching on repeat because we didn’t have cable or satellite tv. We have also been snagging a few from the thrift stores a couple of times a month. Damien enjoys collecting movies even more than me. I’m more of a tv show-in-the-background while I do something else person while he loves to sit down and dive into a movie with pure focus.
Even though I’m less of a committed movie-watcher, the wall of DVD’s to choose from after dinner almost brings back the feeling of visiting Movie Gallery with my mom on a Friday night-pizza night in the early aughts. Pure magic.
Cameras
Since December I have collected five digital cameras from family members and ebay, as well as a handheld video camera. Despite having all of these cameras, I still reach for my phone out of habit when I want to capture something. This is something I want to be more intentional about going forward. I prefer digital cameras that are detached from my phone. The experience is more meaningful and more intentional. The only thing my phone has that a digital camera doesn’t have is convenience. I find that my “analog bag” (really it’s just my purse at this point) gets too heavy for my liking and I think “well, I can remove the camera. I’m just going to work so I probably won’t even use it today” and repeat daily. I’ll have to get back to you on my camera experiments.
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Lessons Learned, Insights Gained
I haven’t cured my scrolling habit yet, but I have learned how to curb it in the meantime. When my phone is sitting beside me, I still feel a compulsion to pick it up and scroll. Even though there’s nothing interesting or rewarding to look at, my brain yearns for the tiny pocket casino. Fortunately, I have learned that if I fill my time with activities I enjoy, I tend to forget the pocket casino exists for a little while. The time spent avoiding my phone feels warm and gratifying. Like how summers felt as a kid— the days went on and on and each moment seemed to be all there was. I don’t think I’ll achieve the exact level of childlike wonder I once had, but having some figurative warmth and color back in my life was exactly the result I had hoped for out of this analog project.
I recently noticed that lately I have been so immersed in drawing and artmaking that I haven’t felt as drawn to writing. I am considering leaning into this inclination in regard to these analog project posts. Maybe this series could become more tactile— a series of analog project updates and insights that are hand drawn, collaged, and/or written, throughout the rest of the year perhaps. For now it’s just a consideration, so please let me know what you think of this in the comments.
In the meantime, I am still building up my physical media library, reading more, drawing more, and being in the physical world more intentionally. In the next six month, one of my biggest goals is to sift through many years of photos that are currently being stored in Google photos. I’d like to get them off the cloud and into some real, tangible storage device or maybe even print some for photo albums.
I wonder how your analog year is going? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
As a reminder, snail mail for July is being sent out in the next couple of weeks, so make sure you sign up for a paid subscription if you’d like to receive summer snail mail! I send out snail mail for each season: winter, summer, spring, and autumn.
Thank you for reading to the end and thank you for being here! I look forward to getting back into the swing of sharing daily moments with you all here as I am growing more and more discontent with Instagram.
Happy summer & happy we-made-it-halfway-through-2026!
Cheers,
Allyson
If you love this post but don’t want to commit to a paid subscription, you can support my work by “buying me a coffee” by clicking the button above. Proceeds will go directly into the farm, always. One million thank-yous for your support, monetary or otherwise.
such a great piece!! ive been wanting to revisit my analog “trend” habits recently too this definitely inspired me!!!! i love your writing!
I so appreciate you revisiting this from time to time! It helps me refocus on being more intentional about what I am doing with my time & focus. Thank you for sharing!!