The Great Autumn Unplug: Staying Human When the Days Get Shorter
- Bee Christie
- Nov 5
- 2 min read
There’s always that moment, usually the Monday after the clocks go back, when you look out the window at 4.30pm and think, surely not. It can’t already be dark. The sun’s vanished, the streetlights are flickering on, and your laptop screen has quietly become the brightest thing in your life.
Welcome to Analogue Autumn – the season where we gently resist the urge to hibernate inside our phones.
The Great Indoors Trap
As the temperature drops, so does our motivation. It’s easier to scroll than stroll, and Netflix has a way of turning into background noise for evenings that all start to blur together. Before long, we’re living in digital burrows – cosy, connected, but oddly disconnected from the real world outside.
It’s not that we don’t want to do things, it’s just that everything that’s good for us seems to involve socks, a coat, and a bit of effort we don’t quite have to spare.
The Cosy Counter-Revolution
But what if autumn wasn’t about retreating into screens, but returning to life? Maybe the shorter days are actually a quiet invitation to slow down, look up, and venture out again… with a scarf and boots.
That’s where the Analogue Autumn Challenge comes in. Think of it as a gentle reset for your attention span:
For families: Head out on an Autumn Treasure Hunt. Gather leaves, pinecones, conkers – anything that crunches underfoot. Bring it home, make something creative, and call it art. Instant magic, zero screen time.
For people working from home: Try a Daylight Dash; a fifteen-minute outdoor break before lunch. Leave the headphones behind and notice how the world sounds when it’s not coming through a speaker.
For office folk: Swap the virtual “catch-up” for a real coffee with a colleague. Step outside, stretch your legs, and remind yourselves you’re not just heads on a screen.
For grown-ups: Declare one night a week a Candlelight Evening. Switch everything off at eight. Read, write, doodle, stare out the window, or just sit still for a bit. It’s cheaper than therapy and smells better.
The Secret Power of Boredom
Analogue moments can feel awkward at first. They’re quiet, slow, and have none of the instant reward of a scroll. But after a while, something shifts. Conversations stretch out. Thoughts have space to breathe. Minds relax.
That’s the real magic of autumn. The trees let go, the pace softens, and everything around us says, in its own quiet way, you can ease off too.
So this season, unplug a little earlier, and step back into the world outside your screen. It may look dimmer, but it’s infinitely more alive.
