Analog living is trending right now, and for good reason. We are all craving more offline time while also being glued to our phones. Most of my goals for 2026 involve locking in, and that, at its core, means getting off the phone. But how do you commit to becoming an offline girl when your business lives online?
There is a punchline in there somewhere. An article about going analog, published by an online magazine that requires you to be online to read it.
Here is the thing though. I do not think it is realistic for any of us to log out all the time. I do think we have lost the plot a little. There are countless articles about teens who are doing less socially.
And I cannot help but think it comes back to screens. We are less social because our phones deliver the dopamine hit we keep chasing, or more honestly, the one we have grown dependent on.
So let’s get into it. How do we gently wean ourselves off our phones and make space for analog living this year?
Step 1. Look at the data
Assess the situation without judging yourself. The data is neutral. It simply tells the truth. Check your current screen time. Write it down. Look at which apps dominate your attention. Awareness comes before change, and makes you actually face the situation.
Step 2. Create a barrier
Decide how you will make scrolling harder.
Maybe that means deleting a few apps for a while. Maybe it means using a Brick or a lock screen timer. Maybe it means installing a focus app and actually turning it on. Pick a tool. Pick a rule. Make it concrete.
Step 3. Find the replacement
A hobby. Writing. Focused work. A walk. Cooking a real meal. Reading a physical book.
The phone fills empty space. If you do not give that space a new purpose, it will always be what you come back to.
Step 4. Lock in the plan
Now you have the data, the barrier, and the replacement. What you need next is a habit loop.
A time. A place. A cue.
So every time you reach for your phone while your coffee is brewing, you open a book instead. Every time you sit down at your desk in the morning, you put your phone in another room. Every evening after dinner, you go for a walk instead of (or before) you scroll.
Make the new behavior automatic by tying it to something that already exists.
Step 5. Brace yourself
Breaking a pattern is uncomfortable. It feels like withdrawal because in many ways, it is. You will reach for your phone without thinking. You will feel bored, restless, or slightly panicked. That does not mean the plan is not working. It means it is.
Expect the friction, and let it pass.
Now, onto what analog living actually looks like.
1. Allow yourself to get bored
Boredom is not a problem to solve. It is a doorway.
Most of us reach for our phones the second there is nothing to do. In line at the coffee shop. Waiting for a page to load. Sitting on the couch after dinner. Those tiny gaps are where your brain starts to wander, and wandering is where ideas come from.
When you remove the screen, boredom turns into noticing. Noticing turns into thinking. Thinking turns into clarity.
Let yourself stare out the window. Let yourself sit on the floor. Let yourself feel the itch to grab your phone and resist it for thirty more seconds.
2. Give things your full attention
There is something deeply unsettling about being on a small screen, while also looking at a medium screen, while a big screen hums in the background. I had to clock myself on that pattern.
We live in a constant state of partial attention. Half listening, half watching, half working, half resting.
Analog living means doing one thing at a time.
When you eat, eat. When you write, write. When you watch a show, watch it. When you work, actually work.
Your nervous system relaxes when it does not have to track three inputs at once. Your brain starts to feel calmer.
3. Define your own rules
There is no universal version of going offline.
Some people delete social apps during the week. Some people keep their phone out of the bedroom. Some people only scroll after 7pm. Some people take Sundays fully offline.
What matters is that you decide on purpose.
Your rules should match your real life. Your work. Your energy. Your goals.
Analog living is not about being perfect. It is about being intentional.
Pick a few boundaries that feel both supportive and realistic, then treat them like agreements with yourself.
The more you keep them, the more you trust yourself. And that trust changes everything.
What being an offline girl looks like when you run an online business
This is the part that trips people up.
You hear talk of going offline and immediately think it does not apply to you because your work happens on a screen. Your income comes from content, email, social platforms, analytics, publishing, and promotion. Logging off completely feels unrealistic, because to some extent, it is.
But analog living to me means that you’re being more intentional.
When you run an online business, your attention is your most valuable asset. The quality of your ideas, your writing, your strategy, and your decision making depends on how well you can think. And constant scrolling fractures your ability to do that.
The goal is to separate creation from consumption.
Creation is when you are writing, editing, recording, planning, or building something that moves your work forward. Consumption is when you are absorbing other people’s content, opinions, and noise.
Both require being online, but they have very different effects on your brain.
An analog minded business owner protects creation time the way a chef protects the kitchen. That means no feeds, no tabs, no background noise. Just you and the work.
It also means letting ideas form offline before they ever become content. Walking, journaling, reading, staring at the ceiling, sitting in silence. That is where your best insights come from, even if they later get published on a screen.
You can run a digital brand and still live analog in the ways that matter.
That can look like checking metrics once a day instead of ten. Writing posts in a distraction free block instead of between notifications. Drafting ideas in a notebook before opening a browser. Having clear hours when you are online and clear hours when you are not.
Your audience and your clients may never sees the stillness that makes your work better. But they can feel it when you’re giving your undivided attention.
And maybe that’s what this all is about: clearing the clutter, so we can actually give ourselves and others our fullest selves.
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