{"id":3579,"date":"2026-01-22T14:11:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/?p=3579"},"modified":"2026-01-28T16:55:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:55:40","slug":"creating-my-own-analog-basket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/blog\/creating-my-own-analog-basket\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating My Own Analog Basket"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Words: Christen Hammons<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

Every Sunday morning, I get a notification on my phone to alert me of how much time I spent on my phone the previous week. I usually quickly glance at it and then close it, but over the past few weeks, I\u2019ve noticed that number increasing steadily while the time I spend on my favorite hobbies decreased. I wasn\u2019t getting through books as quickly as I usually do, and my current coloring book has been open to the same page for longer than I\u2019d like to admit. I found myself frustrated at how quickly time seemed to pass in the evenings, doing little more than mindlessly scrolling. I could also sense my mood being affected by whatever online content I was consuming. I was ready for a change.<\/p>\n

Funny enough, the inspiration I needed to kick this habit came from Instagram, where screen time seems to be a common concern right now. I saw a number of creators posting about their intentions to live a more analog lifestyle. They were putting together baskets and bags full of activities that didn\u2019t involve a phone. Rather than stream music on their phones, they added an old iPod or CDs and a player. There were books, crafts, puzzles, and journals. As someone who rarely sits still, even when watching TV, I loved the idea of having different ways to keep my hands busy readily in front of me.<\/p>\n

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I thought about what I\u2019d be most compelled to do, and filled a little basket with a couple of books, coloring books and markers, a crossword puzzle book, playing cards, an unfinished project, and more. It sits under the coffee table where I can easily reach it from my spot on the couch. Now, when I get home, I allow myself to unwind with a few minutes of phone time to catch up on what I might have missed, and then place my phone on its charger next to my bed, where it stays for the rest of the night. I just started this new routine a week ago, but I feel really good about it, and it\u2019s even inspired my husband to spend less time on his phone.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been feeling the need to cut back on the amount of time you spend on your phone, I suggest putting together a basket of your own, full of whatever it is you enjoy doing. And if you\u2019re looking for more ideas on ways to spend your time without a phone involved, we\u2019ve created a \u201cScreen-Free Activities\u201d BINGO card<\/a> for you. Click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are some publications<\/a> (like\u00a0Bella Grace<\/i>!) we recommend adding to help you disconnect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every Sunday morning, I get a notification on my phone to alert me of how much time I spent on my phone the previous week. I usually quickly glance at it and then close it, but over the past few weeks, I\u2019ve noticed that number increasing steadily while the time I spend on my favorite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,129,6,115],"tags":[244,314,315,316,317],"class_list":["post-3579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-inspiration","category-inspire","category-project-idea","tag-activities","tag-analog-basket","tag-basket","tag-screen-free","tag-screen-free-activities"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellagracemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}