Below is an account of my attempt to unplug completely from email and the internet for 10 days while on a stay-cation. A stay-cation is a local vacation for those of you who haven’t heard the term.
Why I Did It
In the past, when I went on vacation – whether a true vacation or a stay-cation -- I still checked email and voice mail. You know what? I really resented it! This was probably because I remember a time when you took vacation, you truly unplugged because there was no other option. There was no such thing as checking email. Heck, email didn’t even exist! And you weren’t able to check your voice mail at work remotely because there wasn’t such a thing as voice mail. There was a receptionist who took a hard copy message for you. Yes, I know I’m dating myself. I turn 45 at the end of the month. In those days, you MIGHT call into the office to check in with your boss, but in my early days in the working world, there were no cell phones, so when you were on vacation, nobody contacted you and you didn’t contact anybody else. People respected this.
Why don’t we do this anymore? These days of being connected 24/7 are burning away our brain cells and burning us out! Am I the only one who feels this way? I’d love to hear your comments.
I can name SO MANY times when my vacation time came and there were still details up in the air for an upcoming event – or three. So I checked email daily and made myself available to clients who had to call. As a result of all of this staying plugged in, I can’t remember the last time I went on a vacation and truly unplugged. Perhaps it was during a trip to London in 2006. My mobile phone would not work across pond and I didn’t bring a laptop. Once – maybe twice – I checked email at an internet café. But other than that, I unplugged. Still though, I couldn’t go a week without checking email. And the last time before that probably some time in 2002. Pathetic.
So when I decided sort of last minute to take off from April 21st thru May 1st, I got excited. And I was DETERMINED to unplug. How did I do?
This week I’m going to share with you how things went. Tomorrow I will discuss my approach to making this work and then I’ll share with you just how I did and how I felt after the 10 days was up.
Can't wait to hear more, Lori! I hate being so plugged in, too, and remember well days before email and cell phones for grade school students.
ReplyDeleteStill, when you have nobody covering for you, it is very tough to disconnect for that long, especially in these times when none of us can afford to lose business. I can get away with it (and have) for about 48 hours. That's all most potential clients will wait. Also, the nature of my business makes it unlikely that I will get even a week with no bookings and the inevitable crisis associated with them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Laura! It's good to know I'm not alone!
ReplyDeleteCarol -
ReplyDeleteI hear you 100%. Is there anybody else on your team you trust who could take over your role while you are away from the office? I think I will do that next time: Have somebody "be the me." A client who is going to be on her honeymoon for 2 weeks later this month told me just today that she is unplugging while away (thank goodness!) and that she has a co-worker who will look at her email and answer calls since her time away will be during a critical time. I'm sure my client's future hubby will appreciate this!