Analogization
Note to the reader
This post is part of my New Year Ambitions, which I wrote down in my digital diary the morning of 31st of December. The ambitions can be summarized in four words, and for some reason I wrote them in pairs:
Förenkla & Organisera
Analogisera & Rensa
If I try to translate them, they would be:
Simplify & Organize
Analogize(?) & Clear Out
Exactly what these words mean in the context of my ambitions is not set in stone, and perhaps we cannot know until 2026. This first post relates in some way to all of the words, when I think about it. Enjoy.
The Actual Post
My fiancee1 and me have been trying to find a somewhat convinient way of making mutual plans and sharing day to day events and appointments. Of course I vouched for a shared digial calendar/cloud like Nextcloud, but she just has a hard time handling such things. For Christmas she instead gave us one of those family calendars, the physical kind with a mutual column and one for each family member. I really like those, and it sparked something in me.
I have now purchased a paper calendar for myself, and it fills me with unreasonable and very low key happiness. After struggling for years to get a selfhosted Nextcloud running, convincing my fiancee that it is the way to go, this decision made something fall into place. Just giving up the struggle was such a relief. I did use a paper calendar during my nursing studies, and it worked very well.
Furthermore, I found all my old diaries when visiting my childhood home. They are very different in style and shape, and a beautiful collection to look at. It made me happy to see them (even though they are filled to the brim with my adolescent angst and relationship struggles) and felt I wanted to get myself a new paper journal instead of journaling on the Supernote. There is something sincere and authentic about a real book, and I still have other uses for the e-ink tablet.
A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon the substack of Analog Social, and it was just another confirmation of this new route I will explore this coming year. In a recent post they present three problems the digital screen society (my name for it, made it up right now) has created:
The Problem:
Digital overwhelm: Switching between work apps, social feeds, and notifications fractures your attention, making it harder to focus deeply.
Loneliness: Despite constant connection, research shows excessive screen time often correlates with feelings of isolation.
Lost creativity: Over-reliance on digital tools leaves little room for analog habits that spark innovation, like journaling or daydreaming.
The last bullet hit me right in the chest. I've spent so many years trying to find the software that will spark my creativtity and make me the artist/writer/researcher I'm dreaming of. I've drilled so many hours into researching things like the zettelkasten and trying to understand it, thinking that once I do get my head around it everything will just work. This constant meta research on frameworks and methods has kept me busy doing anything but the creative work I long for. I hope this ends now.
In the same post, Analog Social presents solutions to the aforementioned problems. I will not list all of them (please, do read the post), but two called out to me personally:
Unsubscribe from content and notifications that don’t serve you. Keep only what adds value. This I really need to do. My inboxes are full of newsletters and ad-mails from stores and others that my FOMO has just made me keep. 95% of those emails I just delete without opening.
Invest in tools like notebooks, planners, or physical books to reintroduce the tactile joy of analog living. If you read this far, you know I've already started down this path, and I like it!
Another more analog thing I've done this fall is joining a study circle on a book. It's a Swedish book on how the current government is trying to disrupt and destabilise democratic institutions, but that is not why I mention the study circle here. Going there once a week made me realise how rewarding it is to meet people face to face and discuss a topic the whole group has studied. I found myself longing for the meetings, and cherish them as a peak event of the week. This is something I can really recommend. IRL conversation with people is a blast!
There might be more to say on this topic, but I need to go to bed, so I'll end this post with a final analog ambition: I really want to get a vinyl player, so I can once again enjoy all my records (haven't had one for maybe 10-12 years).
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Yes, we will try to get married at some point, but a lot of stuff got in the way, like Covid and a new (OLD!) house in dire need of renovation.↩