This was the agreement: 3 days. No email. No social media. Social media I could handle. Email would be tough.
Relatively speaking, I am not always plugged in – but I am connected quite a bit. While I am not the person who obsessively Tweets during all events, I do check my email chronically. I hate having more than a few (5-7) emails in my inbox and won’t move them to the trash or a folder until I’ve addressed them. I have school, work, professional development, volunteer, personal business and other emails coming in all the time so perhaps it’s understandable why I feel the need to remain plugged in.
I’ve made some steps in the past. I deleted the Facebook app from my phone and only check the site using the web browser. I activated the “Do Not Disturb” feature on my phone so that it doesn’t ring or send alerts between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. And although my work emails are still synced to my phone, I removed the alerts altogether. But there was and is still work to be done.
This weekend I removed the alerts for all emails. This means that when I picked up my phone, I wouldn’t see the number of emails waiting for a response nor would I see an alert when my phone was in locked mode. At the start of the weekend I felt nervous. I was waiting on an updated draft of my company logo and needed to provide a timely response. What if some other important email came through that required my immediate attention? What if I missed an opportunity that was only offered within a limited time frame?
Once I was able to relax, I found myself much more present during our weekend away. I enjoyed the drive/ride and spent my downtime and reading and journaling instead of responding to email or strolling through social media sites. Of course, there were no emails that came through – or hardly ever come through – that warranted my immediate attention. I didn’t miss any miraculous “you must reply now” opportunities and social media was still social media … nothing new, missed or all that exciting. I came back a bit anxious to log on, but knowing that I need to practice this exercise again and more often.
I now have an “Unplug” alarm set on my phone. While this is not easy to maintain during the semester, there is absolutely no reason that I can’t do this during the summer. Starting with this weekend and moving forward, I am spending a little less time plugged in to the virtual world and a lot more time plugged in to my REAL world ;-).