Maintaining that Vacation Spirit
I just took a few days off. And by “off” I mean “completely off the grid”. No phone, no e-mail, no Twitter or Internet or anything. Nada.
It takes me a few days to let go of all these things. Truth be told, the Internet is part of my life—my entire professional career has been spent working on the web—so it’s like turning part of me off. But, I think that is healthy for me, and it helps clear my mind to see with more perspective.
Oh, what did I see, you ask?
For one, that the world rolls on just fine. Online, people keep on tweeting and Facebooking and doing whatever it is that they do. At the office, emergencies were handled and LOL continued to be had. At home, the garbage was not taken out, so I will have to pay an extra $5 this week for a second can. Not exactly what I would call a tragedy.
Another thing I saw was how the pace of everyday life really is stressful. I mean, as a culture, we get seriously wound up with stuff to do. Deadlines and schedules and goals and deliverables. I hadn’t even been back 24 hours and I’m already thinking about all the stuff I have to do.
Clean the gutter above the garage that is filled with pine needles. Take the car to have the bumper repaired. Go to the doctor to have my sore thumb checked out. And, of course, take out the garbage.
The list goes on. And on. The blood pressure rises. The rat race begins.
I’m going to try to bring a little of that vacation spirit back to my every day life, maintain relaxation for a while. I’m not entirely sure how, but I have a few ideas that I’m starting with (and, please, share any other ideas you have in the comments).
To begin, I’m going to focus on scheduling my time better. Instead of constant threads in my mind worrying about when I’m going to get stuff done, I’m going to try putting those things on a calendar.
And, I’m going to try to keep my inbox empty. Instead of having a worrysome backlog of messages to respond to, I’m going to treat each as a task and move it onto a schedule (or a list of unscheduled things).
I suppose both of these are just really techniques for getting the clutter out of my mind and on to paper (or virtual paper, as it were). This reminds me of a book I read a few years ago called The Power of Now by Eckhard Tolle. I don’t remember exactly what it was about, but it had something to do with clearing one’s mind. I also recall having a conversation with my friend Monica afterward, about the book, and she uttered the phrase “leave your mind alone”. That seems fitting now.