The Analog Desk: Your Most Productive Space

You know this feeling.

Your phone dings, your laptop pings, emails slide in, notifications pop up - and without even thinking about it, you check, swipe, scroll, and respond.

Half the time you pick up your phone, you cannot even remember why you picked it up in the first place. Something grabbed your attention on the way to whatever you were actually trying to do.

Somewhere along the way, we started outsourcing our priorities to whoever or whatever can yell the loudest.

But that is not the kind of life God has called us to.

Scripture is full of language about prudence, diligence, self control, initiative. The wise person is focused, intentional, and present. Yet we have quietly bought into the lie that we have to be tethered to our devices all day to be productive.

Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet then all your ways will be sure.

Proverbs 4:25-26

The result is a life of constant motion and very little progress.

The lie of constant connection

The modern story goes something like this:

To be productive, you must always be reachable
To be responsible, you must instantly respond
To be effective, you must always know what is happening

So we stay logged in, notifications on, inbox open, phone within reach.

The problem is, every ding is a tiny vote for someone else’s priorities. Every time we interrupt deep work to check a screen, we teach our brain that shallow, reactive behavior is the norm.

Over time, this trains us to avoid the very kind of focused, uncomfortable, high leverage work that actually changes our lives, businesses, and families.

And because it has become normal, we do not even see it anymore. We confuse constant activity with meaningful progress.

Discovering the analog desk

Recently, a client of mine, Caleb Price from The Podcast Upload, mentioned an idea from Austin Kleon’s book Steal Like an Artist.

Kleon talks about having two desks in his office - one analog and one digital. One space for pens, paper, books, and drawing. Another space for the laptop, the internet, the digital tools.

That concept clicked immediately for me, especially when I paired it with John Maxwell’s idea of a “thinking chair” - a dedicated place where you sit to think, reflect, and listen.

So I decided to try it.

The very next day, I physically moved away from every screen. I found a different spot, sat down with just a notebook and a pen, and left my phone in another room. No inbox. No tabs. No slack. No anything.

It felt almost irresponsible at first.

When your brain finally stops scanning

I will not sugarcoat it - the first part of that analog session felt weird.

I kept wanting to reach for my phone. My brain kept trying to check for new inputs. It felt slow and kind of unproductive. I had to fight the urge to get up, to “just check something real quick.”

But somewhere around the 35 to 40 minute mark, something shifted.

My brain finally realized there were no more new inputs coming. Nothing else to check. Nowhere else to scroll.

And when the scanning stopped, the creating started.

Thoughts that had been half formed for weeks started to connect. Problems I had been circling without resolving suddenly felt clearer. I got more meaningful work done in that one block than I had in days of normal, distracted work.

It was like discovering a different gear - one I had forgotten I even had.

Why this matters for your calling

This is not just about productivity for productivity’s sake.

If you are a man who wants to use your time with purpose and discipline, your attention is one of the most sacred things you steward. Where your attention goes, your life follows.

If you consistently hand over your attention to your devices, you are also handing over your:

Capacity to think deeply
Ability to listen to the Lord
Creativity to solve real problems
Presence with the people who matter most

At some point, this stops being ignorance and starts becoming irresponsibility.

Once you see what distraction is stealing from you, continuing to live tethered to your devices all day is a choice.

A simple analog experiment for this week

So here is my challenge to you.

Sometime in the next 7 days, block a two hour window on your calendar for an “analog desk” session.

Here is what that looks like:

Physically relocate. Do not sit where you usually work on your computer. Pick a different room, a different chair, a different space.
Remove every screen. No phone in your pocket. No laptop open. No iPad nearby. Put them in another room.
Bring only the essentials. A pen, a notebook, and one problem, project, or question you want to think through. That is it.
Commit to stay. Decide in advance that you are not getting up or “just checking something” when it feels slow or uncomfortable.

Pay attention to what happens around that 35 to 40 minute mark.

Notice how your brain starts to settle. Notice how your thoughts begin to line up. Notice how ideas and clarity start to show up once the noise dies down.

Emergencies are rare. You are not going to miss anything critical in a two hour window. But you might finally tap into a level of focused, creative work that you have not experienced in a long time.

Take your attention back

You do not have to stay tethered to distraction.

You can build an analog rhythm into your week - a place and a time where you step away from every screen and give your full attention back to the work and the calling that matter most.

It starts with something as simple as a chair, a notebook, and the courage to be unreachable for a couple of hours.

Try the analog desk this week. See what happens.

To thriving,

Zach