Switch to Analog

Quick Win

Reduce your reliance on technology to help give your brain a workout.

Try This Today

• Find your own way. Don’t know how to get to your next appointment? Instead of reaching for your phone, dust off your road atlas or buy an up-to-date map. Use pen and paper to jot down the directions, and review them before hopping in the car.
• Play in person. Sure, you can lose yourself in online games, but your brain craves camaraderie. Join friends around a table for board or card games like Ticket to Ride, Catan, chess and bridge. You could even meet new people by looking for local game groups on Meetup.com.
• Punch the clock. Do you rely on your phone to wake you up each morning? Stay disconnected from your device a little longer by using an old-fashioned alarm clock. Even better: Banish your phone from your bedroom to avoid late-night temptations of screen time.

Why

Your phone and other tech devices give you directions, distract you with games, get you out of bed and more — much more. But that convenience comes with a cost: Your brain may not get the workout it once did. In a study of 36 university students in Norway, researchers found that the participants’ brains showed more connectivity across regions when they handwrote words compared with typing them. The patterns of brain activity elicited by writing are crucial for memory formation, suggesting that handwritten notes may be better for learning than typing​ is​, according to the work published in 2024 in Frontiers in Psychology.