moving to a sexy city like barcelona will really put into perspective how fucking loserish it is to constantly have your phone out.
this is true everywhere, but america made it much easier to ignore it. in LA, the cellphone is a social crutch: you’re never really sitting at the bar alone if you’re scrolling a feed that shows you thousands of your closest friends, right? you must be very important if you can’t even take your headphones out to order coffee.
here, I noticed the shift immediately.
at first, I thought that all of these cafés just weren’t laptop friendly, but after several months strolling by day after day, I’ve realized you’re totally allowed to whip your computer out. it’s just that nobody wants to. to be sitting on your phone while you wait for your cappuccino is to look like the most impatient little bitch on the planet.
phone-free socializing has been popularized worldwide with cute little party gimmicks like “if you pick your phone up you pay the bill” and club nights where you check your devices at the door, but it hasn’t really dripped down into the digital workforce yet. so many of us feel bound to the internet to run our businesses, and so as we’re exploring cities (our own or otherwise) seeking a cute space to settle in for a work sesh, we’ve become trained to scan for a wifi symbol.
my need for environment-based inspiration (read: I need to absorb a new vibe-y atmosphere on the daily or else I’ll start to hate my life) is a constant in my routine, so it became immediately clear that my work — in it’s original tech-forward form — would need to adapt to my new normal.
6 analog practices that have made me scroll less (and feel sexier) ↓
001 / the itty bitty idea journal
traditionally, I’ve had a shortcut on my phone to a notion page called “quickies” where I put down every fleeting thought, brainstorm ideas, half-write captions, etc. it’s a catch-all for whatever comes to mind, and at the end of each week I take all my ramblings and assign them to their appropriate endeavours. as an offline replacement, I bought the worlds tiniest journal, and it floats from purse to purse just like my wallet. the muscle memory is the same — idea → tiny page — and I can still bring all my ideas to the digital realm when I’m back at my desk.
002 / the big blue business book
you know the joke about “big screen” tasks vs “small screen” tasks? turns out, this translates to notebooks too. there are certain types of brainstorming that I really need a BIIIIG spread for, so I bought a notebook that’s closer to the size of my laptop. I use this when I want to map out big projects, plan articles, or make notes on something I’m reading. recently, I went to a bar and developed a whole podcast episode outline over a glass of red wine. very hot.
003 / the little red fiction journal
I’m working on a book series whilst publishing bits of it on the internet (classic me). the first time I tried writing fiction pen-to-paper was pre-europe, and something completely shifted in the way I was able to access these stories in my minds’ eye so I never went back. in this article that explores the relationship between cellphones and sexual desire, the author writes “eros—carnal desire—is an embodied experience, and our phones do a terrific job of getting us out of our bodies and into our heads.” it’s no wonder that my sexiest fiction scenes are being written on physical pages first.
004 / collage moodboarding
look, I love a pinterest vortex as much as the next basic, and you can pry my current mood board out of my cold dead hands. BUT. I used to have a sunday ritual where I would scour the feed for images and quotes to guide the week ahead, and since weekends tend to be the time I crave being out and about the most, I decided this was a practice I could pivot to something more tactile. enter: real, honest-to-goodness magazines! cut out, and pasted on a page! I don’t do this every single week — it asks for a bit more than a quick scroll sesh, I’ll admit — but it’s nice to have the alternative option if I need something to do with my hands on a patio.
005 / printing articles
would you believe I bought a printer JUST FOR THIS?! would you believe you can buy them for only like $50 these days?! thrilling. the idea here is to save the things you’re interested in reading throughout the week, and then print the most exciting ones out. you take the article to wherever you’re going, mark it up with highlighters and such, and then eventually return to your screen to engage meaningfully with the maker of the works. can you think of anything chicer?!
06 / physical monthly planner
this is another practice that I started up before the move, but it’s come in ultra-handy. I adore a notion dash (and I even created a digital planner that changed my effing life and the lives of others, so I’m told) but the thing about a virtual to-do list is that the page can just get longer and longer and longerrrrrr. I kick off each month by putting my priorities pen-to-paper first because I know that if I can’t distill my goals down to fit a list that I can’t just keep adding more lines to, I’m making promises beyond my capacity. (my favourite is the month planner from wilde house paper).
so, there you have it.
scroll less. feel sexier.
the end.
x
