This time tomorrow, I'll be boarding a cruise ship. And when I do, my phone will be off and I won't check email for an entire week. I'll be on vacation. A real vacation. For the first time in over six years.
When you start and manage your own business(s), you take vacation, but you're never really not connected. I've taken time off from work, but checking email via my phone just to stay on top of things still happened while lounging near a pool or taking in a new city. Yes, I've relaxed, but I've never gone off the grid.
But, I'm doing it. I won't be going to the handy (and expensive) Internet cafe on the cruise ship just to read that day's email. I won't be posting pictures to Facebook of my daughter with Mickey Mouse in real time. I won't check voicemail. I won't be tweeting. I'll be radio silent.
When I decided to do this three weeks ago, I was a bit nervous at first. But after that initial anxiety went away, I've been nothing but excited.
I'll have a whole week of in-between. Whatever comes in can wait. I won't mistake urgent for important (at least for this week). I'll do nothing digital.
Pre-scheduled emails (like Dose and Cool People Care) will still fly. Tweets and status updates that were pre-planned will still happen. But no blogging. No commenting. No tagging.
Just being.
See you in a few.