Analogue nights
Tiny Tortoise #3: step away from the screen and see what you find
Welcome to another Tiny Tortoise â the semi-regular letter where I share a small, slow change/experiment/tool you might like to try.
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I love winter for lots of reasons, chief among them being the cosy factor. I love eating dinner early when the days are short. I love walking the dogs in the cold dark and coming home to a warm fire. I love snuggling up on the lounge and watching a good TV show at night. (The four of us are currently watching The Office which feels like a comfy blanket â except, of course, for the very deep discomfort of watching Michael Scott be Michael Scott â and Ben and I are about to start The Last of Us, which while definitely not comfy, does look amazing.)
It would be very easy to slip into that screen-heavy mode every night in the colder months, and some weeks, to be honest, we do. But a couple of years ago we started an experiment where we set aside one night a week as an âanalogue nightâ, and much to my surprise, itâs pretty much stuck. Even more to my surprise is how much our kids (who are 12 and 14) look forward to it.
What does an analogue night look like?
One night a week (usually Wednesdays for us) the TV stays off, we opt out of screens, put away any tech and spend time together doing something analogue.
Sometimes âdoing something analogueâ means we do it together (play a game, do a puzzle, draw silly portraits of each other etc), while other times it means we sit in the same room and do different analogue things next to each other (read books, draw, play guitar, etc.)
We just replace the hour after dinner that weâd normally spend watching TV, with an hour spent doing something not-digital.
Why do it?
To remind ourselves that relaxing doesnât need to be passive or consumption-based
To reclaim time in our week for things we say we donât have time for
Playing, creating or doing something together is a powerful way of strengthening relationships and building intimacy
It provides an opportunity to try new hobbies or interests
It gives us a chance to chat, ask questions and listen to each other without the noise or interruptions of screens
It feels like a nice waypoint in the week, something to mark the passage of time
We started the experiment as a way to circuit-break our nightly screen habit, which it has done. But alongside that, thereâs also the benefits that come with creativity, play, connection, practicing hobbies, trying new things and stepping away from our ingrained habits.
How to do it?
However you want. Just opt out of digital inputs for a night and use the space you create to do what interests you or makes you feel good.
For us, itâs about spending time together as a family, playing or creating, and winding down. That means we do things like:
Play a board game. Good ones include Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
Listen to music and draw/write/read/work on a creative project
Crochet
Play guitar
Do no-look portraits of each other (some of these have turned out brilliantly, and weâve got a couple framed and hanging on the wall)
Go for a long walk
Sit around the fire and play a made-up game called âRandom Memory: Goâ, where we literally share the first memory that comes up
And one night we sat outside and watched an eclipse, which was awe-inspiring.
But analogue simply means it can be anything non-digital, so might also include things like:
Baking
Writing a story by hand
Taking a class or learning a new skill
Cooking a meal with a friend
Playing footy at the park with your housemates
Taking a long bath and reading a book
Yoga or meditation
Star-gazing
Going to bed early and reading a book for an extra hour (yes please)
Sitting in a comfy chair and daydreaming
What about you? Do you carve out regular time for analogue activities? What kind of things do you like to do? And have you noticed any benefits? Let us know in the comments, and Iâll try to add your suggestions to the list above.
Brooke xx
Absolutely- the key for us has been to move the TV out of the room with the fireplace, so chilly nights means sitting away from the tv. Reading, records, card games have rapidly replaced tv on these nights and it feels a little like a sacrifice to watch something under a blanket in the âtv roomâ!
I love puzzles, board games and crochet and love the idea of an analogue night once a week.
I have a 9 week old so those hobbies are all on the back burner, but we are having lots of analogue time playing together, reading together and spending time outdoors â¤ď¸