5 Things to Move Out of Your Phone and Back Into the Real World

Today, I’m sharing 5 things I strongly believe you can stop using your phone for. If you want even more tips for reducing screen time, check this post out as well.

I read a book recently called “The Extinction of Experience” which talked all about how our shift to everything digital has slowly detached us from reality, which has had all sorts of downstream consequences. It was an incredibly eye-opening book that I highly recommend.

One of the things that really stuck with me was how many things we used to have physically in our lives that now live entirely in the digital world. There was a visual used in the book that centered around photo albums. Photo albums used to be something passed down through generations. It was a physical keepsake that you could reminisce through and share throughout your life to different family. But then, we moved everything digital. So what will we pass on? An Instagram feed? A TikTok account?

Having something to physically touch in our real world grounds us. It deepens our connection with what surrounds us.

And let’s be real. The more we are on our phones, the more we are getting sidetracked into all that unproductive screen time we want to avoid.

So I found things in my life that were purely digital that I’ve since moved back into the physical world. And it’s already given me so much more appreciation for each of these things. I hope this inspires you to try out a few and see what makes a difference in your own life. So without further ado, here are the key things to stop using your phone for.

Photo Albums

Like I mentioned in the intro, the book really made this one stick with me. I have thousands of photos stored in my phone and Google accounts, but I used to have not one photo album in my house. And guess how many times I would scroll through those photos and appreciate them? Maybe once a year? Twice at most? And when there are so many photos, it makes them less meaningful. So even though it took me hours to clean up my photos and decide which ones to keep, it ended in me creating photo albums of the ones that matter most for me to cherish and pass down rather than just sit on a virtual cloud for eternity (or however long that virtual cloud lasts).

Recipes and Cookbooks

Now don’t get me wrong. I love a good Pinterest board of recipes to reference. But, there’s something about having cookbooks in my home that brings me so much comfort and joy to flip through and find the next recipe without having to scroll through social media. And writing down my favorite recipes in a beautiful journal that I can then pass on to my kids means so much to me.

Books

This is one that I never really fully transitioned to digital. I’ve always loved having physical books and I’ve since built a book collection that I am incredibly proud of and love to sit in. Reading is my favorite hobby and there is nothing better than having a physical book and that feeling of turning a page and then seeing how close you’re coming to the end and finally flipping back that last page. My book collection is even in my will and will be passed down to my daughter. So I cherish my books and collection and I hope that my kids will grow up loving it too and it will inspire them to be readers of their own.

To-Do Lists

Grocery lists, to-do lists, anything like that I write down on paper rather than my phone. Sitting down to focus on writing what needs to be done for the day helps me set my mind right for it And who doesn’t love taking a pen and putting that checkmark next to a task they’ve just completed? It’s so much more satisfying than pressing a button on a phone.

Games

I was all into the games for a while on my phone. Candy Crush, Farmville, Words with Friends, heck even Sudoku. I had it all on my phone at one point and would spend hours sucked into these games. But I’ve since removed them all and if I’m really craving a word game, I can always get one at the local dollar store or grocery store in those booklets (like word searches, crosswords, sudokus). I’ve also made it a point to play more physical board games with family and friends, which is way more bonding and fun than just a virtual “words with friends” game.

I hope this gave you a couple of ideas for getting out of your phone and back into the physical world. I’d love to hear what you’re own successes have looked like with getting out of the digital world.

Happy simplifying!