Living Better Off The Grid
My cell phone has not been turned on in two days. It sits lifelessly on the table in front of me, not a friend, but definitely a known acquaintance, cold and still. I should be feeling anxious, but I’m not. And email? Haven’t even opened a browser window. I can still feel the itch to get a head-start on some email work, start a wiki chain of fun facts to tell some of the friends I am with, or read some updated blogs. But no.
I am 100%, completely, off the grid. I swore to do it.
It is Sunday, September 27th, and I’m sitting in a small, lovely house in Cape Cod. It’s just past seven in the morning, and the light outside has the sleepy, cold quality that screams at me to go back to bed, pull that nice comforter up to my nose, and make a go of it until noon. Instead, I’m sipping coffee (that is actually steaming), listening to Neil Young, and writing about how much better life is, disconnected.
There’s no doubt about it, it’s been a crazy damn summer. Many small jobs, two big ones (due at the same time), and several weddings (plus the planning of my own). So, when a friend of ours invited us to escape to Cape Cod for the cost of a car rental, naturally, the woman and I jumped.
When I was thinking of all the stress that the past few months had brought, I came to a realization about certain ‘triggers’ of anxiety. Namely, the ring of the cellphone and the chime of an email. Silly, maybe, but it occurred to me that most of the stress I experienced had nothing to do with my work, but rather in handling the reasonings and expectations of co-workers, freelancers, and clients.
So, I said to myself that if I was going to have a four-day break… and MAKE IT A TRUE BREAK, I am going to keep it off the grid. No cellphone, no email…hell, no WEB.
We left COA (Crack Of Ass) Friday morning, and as we were in the car, I recorded my VM that told everyone, definitively, I was NOT available. This was the toughest part, the real test of one’s convictions. Little thought-gremlins start popping up, telling you that this is a mistake, and you should maybe say you’ll ‘occasionally’ check voicemail, as compared to ‘won’t’. They’ll say you’re being rude. Standoff-ish. This is the point where you trully face that if work-based Armageddon does arrive, you’ll be the last at the party to know.
But, I forced myself to do it, and since then, it has been a mantra to keep the damn thing off. Really, when was the last time something apocalyptic happened? When was the last time that your presence, and nothing else, was the deciding factor in the fight between good and evil? I work hard to surround myself with smart, capable people… so, dammit, let them be smart and capable!
Quite frankly, the feelings fantastic. Worrisome at first? Sure. You get used to it, though. Without much thought, the brain starts to sift through the data you still have, ridding the natural compulsions to, say, wiki for an hour and call it ‘research’. Or to keep the volume on your laptop up, under the guise of listening to music, so that you can run over when the chime of an email pops through. The truly insidious thing is not so much that connectivity is ultimately a distraction, but more so that you’re not even aware of how MUCH a distraction it is. The new American Vacation will simply be defined as disconnect. Off the grid… out of range… gone, daddy, gone.
So, right now, it’s just me, a cup of coffee, and my trusty moleskin notebook. I’m not even back until Tuesday, and I don’t care. Goals, projects, and real FUN is as clear in my brain now as it hasn’t been in a long time. It truly HAS been a vacation, insofar that I am refreshed. It feels like my brain has been scrubbed clean and massaged into a better state of being. Hell, I am even looking forward to getting back.
Just not enough to turn on my email.
-J.