Analog Mornings

A few weeks ago while dragging my luggage across Sea-Tac International Airport I saw a woman wearing a shirt that read “Offline is the New Luxury”.

Bullseye.

I’ve been thinking about this more after recent conversations with several friends, including a Boston-based journalist and another who works in the hospitality industry. Both of them told me it would be near impossible to do their job without being online most of the time.

I get it. It’s increasingly the nature of How We Work and The Way We Live Now.

As a tonic to this trend, I give to you this idea, born out of my desire for a little less online time. I’m calling it “Analog Mornings”, and I’m definitely not the first on the scene with this, but I give it to you in the spirit of friendship and togetherness.

Over the past few weeks, I haven’t reached for my phone first thing in the morning for at least an hour, sometimes two. Oh, I’ve also been avoiding screens as much as possible, unless you count looking at the reflective surface of the microwave going zap zap zap breakfast burrito zap zap zap you’re done.

I know, I know, I know, maybe you’re already saying “But what about this, that, the weather, the other thing, that trending topic, the something or other?”

No, no, no, no, it can all wait.

In the function of self interest and finishing my book in a (somewhat) timely fashion, I have found that I’ve been able to get a bit more done and that I feel much more at peace with the rest of the day, no matter what comes.

A few things I’ve been able to do with this time:

-Finish reading “Slaves of New York” by Tama Janowitz.

-Re-read Bob Thall’s excellent book of photo essays on Chicago, “The Perfect City”

-Write out by hand a few ideas about possible additional book chapters, which is tough because honestly my handwriting is atrocious.

-Listen to Art Pepper’s “Neon Art” on vinyl.

Maybe you’ll find analog mornings helpful for what you need to get done.

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