Our Story · 5 min read
There's a conversation we keep having with friends. It comes up at dinner, on walks, during the kind of long weekend afternoons that feel rarer every year. It goes something like: does anyone else feel like their phone is winning?
Who we are
We're a couple living in the south of Germany — one of us from Spain, the other German. One works in tech, the other is studying bioeconomy. We spend a lot of time thinking about systems: how things connect, what's sustainable, what quietly costs more than it gives back.
And somewhere along the way, we started applying that same lens to our screens.
The slow drift
Not dramatic. More like a slow pull. Reaching for the phone during a conversation. Half-watching a sunset while also half-scrolling. Feeling vaguely tired after an evening that should have been restful.
We're close to technology — one of us works in it, the other studies what comes after it. We're not anti-tech. But we started feeling the weight of constant connectivity in a way that was hard to ignore. Less presence. Less patience. A strange, low-level restlessness that followed us even into the moments that used to feel restorative: nature walks, family time, Sunday mornings.
It wasn't just us. The same conversation kept coming back with friends. Everyone was noticing something. Nobody quite knew what to do about it.
So we started experimenting
Not with grand gestures or cold-turkey detoxes. Just small, honest experiments. Competing against each other to use our phones less. Trying dumbphones on weekends. Leaving devices in a drawer when we got home.
Some things worked surprisingly well. Some didn't. All of it was more interesting — and more revealing — than we expected.
Sunday Offline is where we document all of it.
This blog is about practical ways to use technology less — without pretending it's easy or that you need to throw your smartphone into a river. We're not minimalism influencers. We're two people figuring this out in real time, and sharing what we learn.
Dumbphones
Honest reviews of alternatives to the smartphone
Screen time experiments
Including our ongoing daily competition against each other
Analog alternatives
Tools that actually replace digital ones
The research
Thinking and evidence behind why any of this matters
The tip that changed things most for us wasn't an app, a challenge, or a productivity hack. It was simpler: we picked one day a week to go fully offline.
The experiment
Sunday. No scrolling, no notifications, no background podcasts. Just the day as it comes.
The first time felt oddly uncomfortable — that low buzz of reaching for the phone and remembering you're not doing that today. By mid-morning, something loosened. We went for a walk. We cooked a proper lunch. We read actual books.
That discomfort in the first hour is worth pushing through. What's on the other side of it is the whole point of this blog.
A few things that made it easier
Swap in a dumbphone for the day
Having a device that can only call and text removes the temptation entirely — not as willpower, but as design. We review the ones we've tried on the blog.
Replace your phone alarm with a real one
It sounds trivial. But the bedroom is where most people's screen time begins and ends. A simple alarm clock breaks that chain at the source.
Keep a paper notebook nearby
For the thoughts that usually go into the Notes app. There's something about handwriting that slows things down in a good way.
Have a book you're genuinely curious about waiting
Not aspirational reading — something you actually want to open. The key word is waiting. Ready on the table before Sunday starts.
None of these are radical. That's the point. Pick this Sunday. Tell someone you're doing it. See what a day without the screen actually feels like — and then come back and tell us.
If you want to follow our experiments as they happen, subscribe below. Sunday Offline is written by a couple based in southern Germany. We post about dumbphones, screen time habits, and the quiet project of being a little more present.