It’s been 7ish months since I swapped my smartphone for a flip phone, and I couldn’t be happier about this decision! 📞

Here are some steps that personally facilitated this transition.

~ I know it can seem scary or unattainable for a lot of folkx, but if your goal is to embrace a more analogue life in 2026, I highly recommend trying it, even if only during weekends. It seems harder than actually is (and this is coming from someone who works in digital marketing!)

🌿 I physically blocked data in my iphone for a year + leading to the switch. Meaning that I went to the phone store and asked them to block it, so I could only use the internet away from home if I connected to wi-fi. No exceptions. This helped me get used to simply not using my smartphone aside from calling and SMSing whenever away from home.

🌿 Carrying my digital camera more often with me. And, when not practical, I enjoy using a disposable film camera! They’re very affordable and will get you snapping away for months. One of my next purchases will be a compact film camera for less waste.

🌿 Downloading WhatsApp onto my laptop. Game-changer!

🌿 Always having a pen and some paper in my bag.

🌿 Getting back our CD collection from growing up and playing them in our home stereo. Bye bye Spotify 👋🏽

🌿 Listening to podcasts through my laptop connected to Bluetooth (I can even play them in the home stereo in this way)

🌿 Being comfortable with silence — on walks, at home, while crafting…

🌿 Calling my friends more often than texting!

(there might be others I’m forgetting, so I’ll likely update this list as I remember)

Full disclosure, my iphone lives in a drawer in our office space, and I turn it on for small bursts of job-related activities that can’t be done on my laptop for 15-20 mins at a time, about 3 times a week. Once that is done, it’s turned off and goes back to the drawer. It’s purely functional now, and the battery is dead anyway!

Can you spy the flip phone in this photo? 🔎

🐌 I am still learning a lot through this process, and we can learn together! Questions, ideas, suggestions? Drop them below, friends. And I’d love to hear about your dumbphone experience, if you want to share!