Five Ways to Spend your Sunday Offline
Here are our five favourite ways to spend time offline.
If you’re seeking ways to spend time offline, you’re not alone. There’s a strong trend towards analogue pursuits and rediscovering the pleasure of deliberate and considered activities, using and making tangible things. Many traditional or ‘old technology’ pastimes have made a comeback, offering a kind of satisfaction that scrolling rarely provides.
1. Read a real magazine cover-to-cover cover
Treat yourself to a high-quality glossy. Whether it’s fashion, craft or travel, lose yourself like it’s 1999 in the pages of a real magazine. Slow down, don’t skim read – make an effort to spend time reading all the articles and enjoy the art of photographers in large format.
Our favourite indulgence right now is Coast Tasmania, a new publication which its editor Aissa Reed describes as a love letter to Tasmania, celebrating the innovators and ground breakers, artists and adventurers, growers and makers, and everyday heroes of our island home. Issue 1, Spring, is available now in all Hill Street stores.
2. Find your old camera and take some photos
You might have seen twenty-somethings carrying around large old SLRs and taking ‘proper photos’ with film. There’s something about having only 24 or 36 exposures which makes taking photos this way very deliberate and more enjoyable. Then there’s the delayed gratification of putting them in for processing and enjoying the granularity of the photos once printed. You’re bound to have an old camera lying about – give it a try!
3. Make bread
This trend started during Covid when sourdough-making became a craze for people who suddenly found they had time to tend to fermenting starters and rising dough. Still popular, being able to make your own bread is recognised as a life-skill worth having. Besides sourdough, you could try making your own bagels, focaccia or this healthy wholemeal cob loaf.
4. Get preserving
This is another traditional skill that’s being revived. Not only is it fun and satisfying, but it fits in with a no-waste, seasonally-connected mindset where you can use up excess fruit or vegetables and make yourself jars of good stuff to enjoy for months to come. Take a look at our Quick Pickle, Jam and Relish & Chutney guides and get bottling!
5. Start listening to vinyl records
Part of the desire to unplug and also be free of subscription music, the trend towards vinyl is huge. If you have an old record player in storage somewhere, dust it off, and start collecting. Devotees say that deliberately choosing an album, listening to it in its entirely in the order the artist intended, and enjoying the richer tones of vinyl, makes listening to music a ritual rather than being something fed to you by an algorithm or always on in the background.
In a culture built around speed, analogue activities offer friction in the best sense: they slow people down, make them pay attention and turn free time into something memorable. Give them a try! You might just discover a new passion and replace some of your screen time with something more fulfilling.