The Analogue Hobbies That Set Me Free From The Digital World

Pledging to reduce your screen time is one thing; deciding what to do with all those scroll-free hours is another. When I made the conscious decision to spend more time outside the digital world, my aim was very clear: do more of what I actually enjoy.

Now I’m not averse to trying new things, but I’m also aware that taking up hobbies just because they’re trendy at the moment is likely to prove futile; I’m looking at you, Yoga and Padel. So here are the hobbies that set me free from the shackles of the digital world:

Walking

My daily steps have certainly increased during my digital downsize journey. With it being so easily accessible, I find walking one of the best things to do instead of doomscrolling. I walk, often phone-free, every single day. Sometimes it’s just simply to get from A to B; on other occasions, mainly on weekends, I’ll intentionally leave the house for the sole purpose of going for a walk.

For most of my adult life, I never really walked that much. It was something I began to get into during lockdown as there was nothing much else to do. I have occasionally walked with friends, but most of the time I’m a solo wanderer. I know that some people like to walk outdoors whilst listening to music or a podcast. Personally, I prefer to be completely unplugged.

I can get quite restless sitting indoors looking at the same four walls, and walking provides me with the sort of freedom I crave. Arriving back home feeling re-energised, often with fresh ideas, is one of the many benefits I get from walking, along with weight maintenance and improved mental clarity.

Reading

Until recently, I was the type of person who only read books around the pool on holidays. The books in question were usually autobiographies, invariably those of ex-footballers. Once I returned from my break, the books would be put away in a drawer until my next vacation.

The process of scrolling on my phone as my usual bedtime ritual has now been replaced with a good book. I have expanded my horizons when it comes to categories too. Self-help, finance and history have all got a look-in, although fiction has yet to make an appearance as I’m still scarred from the experience of studying Jane Austin at A-Level English.

Reading has taken me away from mindless scrolling. It is something I look forward to at the end of a busy day. Sometimes I might just read a few pages, whereas at other times that might be extended to a few chapters. The mental processing involved in reading certainly helps you to fall asleep quicker too!

Playing Piano

I started playing piano around 16 years ago. I then stopped. Fast forward to 2021, and the country had been in lockdown from January to March due to the COVID pandemic. All that free time on my hands had me thinking about taking it up again. Once restrictions were lifted, I managed to acquire a second-hand digital piano on Gumtree.

Admittedly, it sat in my spare room for around two years gathering dust with hardly a note being played. It was only when I got a new job in 2023 and resumed some kind of ‘normal’ routine that practising the piano became a regular hobby again.

I’m not going to lie, learning to play an instrument is hard. Also, sometimes it’s the last thing I feel like doing after a busy day. However, on the occasions I’m really immersed in it, I enter a flow state in which I lose track of time. Just like Sister Sledge, I’m literally lost in music…

Lifting Weights

Unlike the gym bro scroller mentioned alongside these other annoying smartphone users, I don’t take my phone onto the gym floor. Instead, it’s safely kept in my locker whilst I pump some iron.

I go to the gym straight after work. It allows me to unplug for a while after looking at a screen all day. With no distractions, I feel I can fully concentrate on what I’m in the gym for: to work out. It really helps to clear the mind, offering a welcome reset.

I understand that some people have their workout plan on their phone and others like to listen to music with their headphones. For me, however, I like to be removed from my device. After a day in which I’ve likely been bombarded with emails and Slack messages, it’s good to be unreachable for an hour or so.

Angling

I’ve been a keen angler since I was a young lad when my dad would take me fishing most weekends on the Northumberland coastline. Despite it not being everyone’s cup of tea, angling is one of the biggest participant sports in the UK. Interestingly, its appeal is continuing to grow with increased numbers of women taking up the sport.

When you’re fishing, you’re completely switched off from the stresses of everyday life and, most importantly, disconnected from the digital world. All you can think about is the next bite and whether the tactics you are deploying at that moment need to be tweaked or changed completely. There’s something about being by water too that calms the mind.

Angling has been popularised more recently by the hit TV show Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. The series illustrates that even strong relationship bonds can be strengthened further by a few hours together by the water’s edge.  

Cooking

I’m no Gordon Ramsay, but I certainly find cooking has a therapeutic quality to it. I think it’s the possibility of things going wrong that provides me with a laser-like focus when considering timings and whatnot.

It also offers a sense of accomplishment when things don’t turn out quite as bad as expected. Listening to music whilst you’re busy in the kitchen is one of life’s simple pleasures. And although I sometimes do follow instructions on my phone from YouTube or the BBC food website, it’s constructive, unlike mindless scrolling.

Writing

As this is an online blog, I can’t exactly claim my writing on here has completely set me free from the digital world. Therefore, I’m not going to use my musings on Digital Downsize as an example.

Instead, I do engage in other forms of writing that are a lot more of the analogue variety, and find it a great way to create more whilst consuming less. Although I haven’t got into the self-help guru’s number one pastime of journalling just yet, I do keep a diary which I update fairly regularly.

I also write song lyrics, probably not as regularly as I would like, or should do. But when inspiration arrives, the pen and paper come out, and I scribble a few lines down which I hope are somewhat coherent.

Final Thoughts

If you can think of hobbies that are going to take you away from screens and devices, and that you’re actually going to enjoy, I thoroughly recommend pursuing them. Breaking free from your schedule, losing track of time and fully immersing yourself in activities without any digital distractions is rare in the modern world, and that’s why analogue hobbies should be cherished.