My company allows every employee to take a two-week "sabbatical" (in addition to normal vacation time) every three years, that must be taken all at once and the rule is they have to be completely out of communication with the company and our clients. We're software consultants, always on our computers, fielding requests and requirements from clients all the time.
One of my coworkers told his clients that he would be selecting and deleting all unread emails en masse when he returned from his sabbatical, so to please wait and email when he gets back. He returned to only 31 emails in his inbox. I've been too scared to try this myself, but it sounds glorious!
That is a really interesting policy, although every three years seems too infrequent! Have you taken one of these sabbaticals yet? How did you feel during it (and did you also unplug from personal internet use/availability?)?
I agree, I would love for it to be more frequent, but alas that is not my decision :) I took one two years ago and was completely unplugged from anything work-related. I still stayed plugged in for personal things, but I used it less frequently than usual because I spent most of the time visiting friends around the country. I don't think I ever once felt nervous or worried about what I might be missing at work -- I truly stepped away from it. I'm the office manager and so I was expecting to come back to a huge host of emails. If I recall, it was only about 200, which is not bad at all.
A book that a lot of friends have recommended, but which I haven't read yet, is "the tech wise family."
I have been trying to think less "all or nothing" and more "what is healthy?" in my approach to tech. I've heard it argued that smart phones and social media are more like utilities than luxuries, and I think this makes a lot of sense. But the problem of always having your nose to the screen is real, too.
For myself, I try to monitor whether I'm being rude to the people around me, whether I'm wasting time, and whether I'm training my brain to not focus for more than ten seconds at a time. I think it's a positive good to maintain relationships and exchange advice, which is probably the main thing I do with my phone.
I did two things on my phone which I think help me maintain good boundaries. One, I turned off any notifications (esp sounds) that don't contribute to my life at all. Two, I changed the notification sound for when my husband texts me, so it sounds different from when anyone else texts me. I can ignore a lot of "zip zip zip" sounds while doing laundry with my toddler, but when I hear "ding dong" I check because it's my husband. (I tried turning off all notification sounds except him, and that ended up making things worse, so I turned them back on.)
Mary, those strategies are so smart!! I did that with notifications, too, but then...I just ended checking the phone visually all the time to see if anyone had texted/e-mailed. (Yikes.)
I have read Tech-Wise Family, and I definitely recommend it. It had some new-to-me suggestions and ideas that I found really interesting. Not just all the usual stuff. Let me know what you think if you do read it!
Yeah, when I made everything silent, I kept visually checking, too, so that's why I turned the sound back on. But I found that, at least for me, it's pretty easy to ignore them when (a) I know it's not my husband, because his sounds different, which means it's almost definitely not important, and (b) my phone is physically out of reach, somewhere where I'd have to physically get up off the floor with my old bones. I've got two kids under 3 so I spend a lot of time on the floor!
Yeah! I have very sensitive wrists from an old injury, so I can't actually wear a watch. But for years I had a nurse's watch that I clipped to my beltloop. I should get a new one!
My company allows every employee to take a two-week "sabbatical" (in addition to normal vacation time) every three years, that must be taken all at once and the rule is they have to be completely out of communication with the company and our clients. We're software consultants, always on our computers, fielding requests and requirements from clients all the time.
One of my coworkers told his clients that he would be selecting and deleting all unread emails en masse when he returned from his sabbatical, so to please wait and email when he gets back. He returned to only 31 emails in his inbox. I've been too scared to try this myself, but it sounds glorious!
That is a really interesting policy, although every three years seems too infrequent! Have you taken one of these sabbaticals yet? How did you feel during it (and did you also unplug from personal internet use/availability?)?
I agree, I would love for it to be more frequent, but alas that is not my decision :) I took one two years ago and was completely unplugged from anything work-related. I still stayed plugged in for personal things, but I used it less frequently than usual because I spent most of the time visiting friends around the country. I don't think I ever once felt nervous or worried about what I might be missing at work -- I truly stepped away from it. I'm the office manager and so I was expecting to come back to a huge host of emails. If I recall, it was only about 200, which is not bad at all.
Thats awesome. I wish more companies would realize the positive effects of this kind of total break.
A book that a lot of friends have recommended, but which I haven't read yet, is "the tech wise family."
I have been trying to think less "all or nothing" and more "what is healthy?" in my approach to tech. I've heard it argued that smart phones and social media are more like utilities than luxuries, and I think this makes a lot of sense. But the problem of always having your nose to the screen is real, too.
For myself, I try to monitor whether I'm being rude to the people around me, whether I'm wasting time, and whether I'm training my brain to not focus for more than ten seconds at a time. I think it's a positive good to maintain relationships and exchange advice, which is probably the main thing I do with my phone.
I did two things on my phone which I think help me maintain good boundaries. One, I turned off any notifications (esp sounds) that don't contribute to my life at all. Two, I changed the notification sound for when my husband texts me, so it sounds different from when anyone else texts me. I can ignore a lot of "zip zip zip" sounds while doing laundry with my toddler, but when I hear "ding dong" I check because it's my husband. (I tried turning off all notification sounds except him, and that ended up making things worse, so I turned them back on.)
Mary, those strategies are so smart!! I did that with notifications, too, but then...I just ended checking the phone visually all the time to see if anyone had texted/e-mailed. (Yikes.)
I have read Tech-Wise Family, and I definitely recommend it. It had some new-to-me suggestions and ideas that I found really interesting. Not just all the usual stuff. Let me know what you think if you do read it!
Yeah, when I made everything silent, I kept visually checking, too, so that's why I turned the sound back on. But I found that, at least for me, it's pretty easy to ignore them when (a) I know it's not my husband, because his sounds different, which means it's almost definitely not important, and (b) my phone is physically out of reach, somewhere where I'd have to physically get up off the floor with my old bones. I've got two kids under 3 so I spend a lot of time on the floor!
Yes, not keeping it in your pocket is totally key! I need to get a watch so that I don't carry it as a timepiece.
That's a big part of it too! I have clocks all over the house, but when I go out and about it's different.
Yeah! I have very sensitive wrists from an old injury, so I can't actually wear a watch. But for years I had a nurse's watch that I clipped to my beltloop. I should get a new one!