"Humor Me" Simplicity Tip #3:
Unplug from email for an entire weekend!
OH NOOOOOOO, not that! Anything but that! Are you hyperventilating yet? Remember back in the day, when "weekend" meant NOT working for two whole days? With technology being totally portable these days, it's nearly impossible to disconnect from work unless you establish a personal boundary. Christmas Boy is great at that. Myself, being self-employed... not so much. I recently attended a workshop where the speaker quoted the following statistics from various (non-scientific) studies:
- According to Sam Geist's Quick Bites newsletter, a survey of 1908 workers revealed that 51% of employees stayed in contact with work while on vacation, and 63% kept in daily contact with the office.
- An AOL study revealed that 15% of Americans describe themselves as "addicted to email", and 41% of people in that same survey admitted they check email first thing in the morning, some even before brushing their teeth. (Ewww, come on!)
- Another study suggested that half of Blackberry users would be "concerned" if they were
parted from their Blackberry, and that 10% would be "devastated".
Given the intrusion into our lives by technology, a great way to try a little simplicity is to unplug from email for a whole weekend! Success Guru Stephen Covey's Seventh Habit is SHARPEN THE SAW. This means keeping balance in the following four areas of your life: physical, spiritual, mental, and social. So this week, after work on Friday, don't turn on your computer or read email again until Monday morning. Only use the phone part of your Blackberry (no email cheating!) and don't do any work-oriented work. Housework or landscaping is fine, because it's not work-related. But no calling the boss or co-workers, no email, no paper-and-pencil work, NADA.
Listen, I'm as in love with my email (and my work) as the next guy and thinking about it gives me the shakes too, but humor me. Just try it. And let me know your results! You never know, you might just like it!
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