10 Analog Activities to Do by Yourself

Give Your Hands Something Else to Do

Being alone and being bored used to be two completely different things. Somewhere along the way, though, five quiet minutes became enough time to unlock a phone seventeen times, so I started thinking about what I could actually do with that time instead.

1. Cook Something From Scratch

Choose something you genuinely want to eat and make it without treating the process like another task to finish as quickly as possible. Chop the ingredients, put on some music and take your time with it.

Cooking alone can be surprisingly relaxing because there is nobody waiting for dinner except you. And if it goes wrong, there is also nobody available to provide an immediate performance review.

2. Start a Puzzle

A puzzle gives your brain something specific to focus on without asking much else from you. Start with a size that can reasonably be completed before you start resenting the people who manufactured it.

Leave it on a table and return to it whenever you have a spare twenty minutes. Eventually you will start recognizing individual pieces like coworkers, which is probably the point at which you have become fully committed.

3. Sketch or Paint

You do not have to be talented enough to show anybody what you make. That freedom is actually one of the nicest parts of drawing or painting alone.

Choose something in front of you, copy a photograph or simply make shapes and see where they go. When nobody is waiting to judge the finished result, creativity becomes much less serious and considerably more enjoyable.

4. Write by Hand

Take a notebook and write whatever is currently occupying too much space in your head. It can be a journal entry, a list, a letter, an idea for something you want to make or complete nonsense that nobody else needs to read.

Writing by hand forces you to slow down slightly because your hand cannot move at the speed your thoughts sometimes try to. That slower pace can make it easier to work out what you actually think instead of simply producing more words.

Slow Down Enough to Notice Something

Not every solo activity needs to end with something completed, posted or crossed off a list. Sometimes the entire point is to slow down long enough to notice what your brain has been trying to tell you while you were busy filling every quiet moment.

5. Read a Physical Book

Choose a book because you are genuinely interested in it, not because you believe reading something impressive will improve your personality. Find somewhere comfortable, put the phone out of easy reach and give the story enough time to pull you in.

Physical books also create a nice boundary because there are no notifications waiting between paragraphs. The only thing interrupting you is usually realizing you have been reading the same sentence for five minutes because your mind wandered somewhere else.

6. Sit Outside With a Drink

This activity sounds almost aggressively uneventful, which is exactly why I like it. Make coffee, tea, juice or whatever you prefer and sit somewhere outside without bringing entertainment.

Notice what is happening around you and give your brain a chance to stop processing somebody else’s content for a while. You may be surprised how quickly doing nothing stops feeling like nothing.

7. Take a Walk Without Headphones

Go for a walk and leave the podcast, playlist and video behind for once. You hear considerably more when something is not constantly playing into your ears.

Walk somewhere familiar and pay attention to what you normally ignore, or choose somewhere completely new. The point is not steps, calories or pace; it is simply spending time in your own surroundings without needing an additional layer of entertainment.

Make Something You Can Return To

There is something satisfying about spending time on something that still exists when the afternoon is over. A photo album, a small craft or even an album you finally listened to properly gives the time a little more shape than another hour disappearing into a feed.

8. Print and Organize Your Photographs

Most of us have thousands of photographs and almost none that we actually look at. Choose some favourites, print them and put them into an album, frame a few or create a small memory box.

Going through old photographs also has a habit of turning into an evening by itself. One picture leads to another, and suddenly you are staring at something from six years ago wondering why everybody collectively agreed that particular hairstyle was acceptable.

9. Learn a Simple Craft

Crochet, sewing, woodworking, model building, jewellery-making or anything else that keeps your hands busy can become an excellent solo activity. Start with a beginner project rather than immediately buying enough supplies to establish a small manufacturing operation.

The satisfaction comes from slowly becoming better at something you could not do before. Even imperfect finished pieces feel different when you can hold them and say, I made that.

10. Listen to an Album From Beginning to End

Choose an album you love—or one you have always meant to hear properly—and listen without doing six other things at the same time. Sit somewhere comfortable, use decent speakers or headphones and allow the songs to play in the order the artist intended.

It is surprising how different music feels when it is the activity rather than background noise. You may notice songs you usually skip, transitions you never heard before and details that disappear when music is competing with everything else.