How often do you allow yourself to go unwired is the question of the day at Jeff Pulver’s blog. Interesting question indeed.
I just spent the weekend unwired, and it was great. It’s something I rarely ever do, if only because the email pile-up is too awful to contemplate on a regular basis. And most people I know are rarely, if ever, totally out of the online loop. While I was off-line, friends actually called when “want to see a movie?” or “what are you doing tomorrow?” emails went unanswered. By Sunday I felt really relaxed, and my always sore hands were happier.
That gnawing disease…
Even while determinedly avoiding the computer, I had the gnawing feeling – an addict’s craving, truth be told – that I was missing something important by not checking the comments on my blog, and the goings on of my Twitter buds and my favorite blogs. I held my ground, until last night, and I plan to stay unwired more often this summer.
Frankly, while I think the work I do is important for my clients, the world won’t end and IT systems won’t fall if I don’t respond to an email for a couple of hours, so I don’t have a Blackberry and don’t want one. But an awful lot of other people apparently see their work as holding the globe together.
One caveat about disconnecting: it’s a joke among bloggers that if you want to start a problem for a corporation you write the post on the weekend because nobody corporate will see it until Monday. Several big companies have been caught in blog storms that started on a weekend and that could have been diffused is someone was watching the store. So somebody has to be handling reputation management on weekends, but people can take turns doing that. If there’s a problem, a simple phone call can summon the troops.
Constant connection is often an addiction
Nonetheless, it’s common to see people answering email via Blackberry in meetings, at meals, and during events: something that strikes me as incredibly rude, but which seems almost universally accepted. For the most part, rather an a necessity, staying constantly connected is a habit that becomes an obsession, and then an addiction.
One 30-something friend told me “I have to be online 24/7 because my clients are.” I responded: start by saying, “I’m not available until after noon on Sunday,” and go from there, until you’ve re-claimed your weekends. She finally decided that was possible, and reports that she is not only less stressed, but ultimately also more productive because she now has some time to think.
How about you: how often are you unwired?
Related posts:
- How to Get Hit-On Constantly
- Americans More Addicted to Email, Thanks to Portable Devices
- Your Brain on Technology: Rewired and Addicted?
- Top 10 Signs You Might Be Addicted to Blogging
- eROI: Email Addiction Growing
Tags: BL_Ochman, internet, offline, trends, unplugged, unwired
For the past few months, I’ve spent half of Saturday and half of Sunday unwired. It’s a painful process, and I must admit to being an addict. There is something terribly addicting about instant information access.
As much as I love the Dallas / Fort Worth area and call it home, it’s not a beautiful place to live. There are some high profile parts of the metroplex that are far more attractive than the rest (Highland Park & Southlake, for example), but nothing too scenic.
Unplugging would be far more satisfying if I had a tropical beach nearby. Then I would willingly disentangle myself from my digital lifeline and partake of nature’s delights.
B.L.,
Decades ago I learned that the number of hours we spend working does not equal the amount of quality work we produce. My standards are these:
On Mondays through Fridays, my computer is on from 8:30 a.m. to about 6 p.m. On Saturdays, it comes on about 9 a.m. and is shut down about 1 p.m. On Sundays it stays off. As for my cell phone, it keeps about the same hours, except I don’t turn it on over the weekend unless I am meeting some one.
I don’t own an Ipod, a Blackberry or any other gadgets and have no plans to purchase any in the near future. I also don’t use the text messaging function on my cell phone.
My life and my business are doing just fine and I seldom experience stress. It’s all written down in my next book that argues creating happiness is more important than creating stuff.
Daniel: I agree, Dallas ain’t pretty. but it does have some nice galleries and museums.
Lewis: My iPod is one of the ways I escape, as music soothes my soul. I also love text messaging.
And I always have my phone with me, but answer it selectively.
Good for you for setting hours. Because I work at home, I make sure I get out of the house several nights a week to dance classes and to places with live bands.
But I have to admit, I check my email when I come home. :>)
What a great topic. As more and more technology comes to market, so many of us are adapting and purchasing. In a way, it’s hard not to, with our clients and the business world following suit.
I admit to being addicted to my computer and I find it hard to keep it off entirely on weekends. But, I keep trying, and over the long weekend, I managed to keep away for most of Sunday and Monday.
Lewis, I admire your philosophy of life. You are so right – we need to take time to smell the roses. The best man at my wedding died last week at age 64 after being diagnosed with cancer three months before. What’s it all for if we can’t enjoy what time we have here?
I spent the first two thirds of my career without the internet and the first half without a cell phone. It was no less hectic then it is now. In fact, I believe being wired has made it easier.
When I started my first business there was no Fedex and virtually no affordable courier services. This meant that I had to get my work done a week or several days before it was due if I had to send it out of state. That meant weekend work. Many times I found myself driving to the airport to meet a client before they got on a plane. I also had to wait for clients to get back from wherever they were to get input critical to production and that made me work late or on weekends.
If I had research to do I had to go to the library and spend hours or days there getting what I wanted. Artist had to be in the office to get their work done because that is where the typesetting machines and art tables were. If I wanted to read a book I had to take time away from the family.
Today I use an Ipod, when I am driving, to listen to books and it is every bit as satisfying as reading. If I need to get something to a client quickly I can email or FTP it anytime I want and pretty much from wherever I want. If it is non electric item I send it FEDEX, UPS and even by post over night. Most of the time, I can get in contact with my clients (if they stay wired) and get any information I need immediately. That means I don’t have to work weekends unless I want to. Any research I do when I have the time and from my own desk, coffee shop or by the pool.
Being wired means I have a lot more time for me. The Sopranos TV show has a reoccurring statement that comes to mind now: “Oh poor you.” No disrespect is meant, but the next time you think technology is getting the better of you think back or ask someone else who can remember when there was no fax machine, cell phones, WEB, computers or IPODS. It wasn’t easier, it was a lot harder.
Speaking of the Sopranos, if I happen to be out or working I can record it on my TIVO and look at it anytime I want.
So my suggestion is stay wired but balance work with your real life. Really now it is not personal, only business.
Harry: I remember those days, and remember my boss getting on a train to deliver some ads to the NY Times because that was the fastest way. And he also got to have lunch with friends in town.
Balance is crucial to health, and for me, also to productivity.
I need my time away, even if I come back and check my mail and blog comments at the end of the evening. Because it is troo. I am an Internet addict.
I remember those days, too, Harry. Also, my first journalism job was at a tiny weekly newspaper where I wrote my articles on a manual typewriter, without correction tape. It taught me to be an efficient writer, and to pause before I wrote, which has served me well, in work and in life.
That being said, I freely admit to an online addiction. I do unplug — and did this past weekend in Maine — but it remains an addiction nonetheless.
(And frankly, as addictions go, it’s certainly not the worst…!)
This is why I don’t have a Treo. I mean, c’mon, I don’t need email everywhere, like at the pool.
I’ll check it when I get home. Is that unplugged?
Ann: You’re right that we could have worse addictions, but I do sometimes wonder what I would be doing if I wasn’t blogging, Twittering, emailing, surfing.
WOuld I be incredibly more productive, or is this the modern version of productivity?
I’d probably be indulging in a worse addiction if I didn’t have this one, and chocolate.
Jim: Umm, no, that’s not unplugged.
Unplugged is I am not online today, or tonight, or this weekend.
But it’s close. And it’s a start.
It’s pretty much the best I can usually do too.
p.s. No post on Internet addiction would be complete without a mention for the Blogoholics out there…
http://darmano.typepad.com/bloggers_anonymous/
That’s my PSA for today.
: )
Your post got me thinking about real benefits to the human brain that unwires for the weekend too:-) I came up with five that might surprise some. Great post and discussion — thanks for opening the cool can!