Last Saturday I didn’t turn my laptop on.
No checking my blog stats first thing in the morning, no Facebook updates, no Pinterest, no checking work or personal emails.
Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
I cleaned the house in the morning, went to the hairdressers (I’m blonde again just in time for my trip to New York) and went for sunset drinks at a gorgeous new bar on the edge of the Brisbane river. Then it was off to dinner and home by 10 pm.
Still the laptop stayed off.
It felt pretty good actually.
I figure one of two thoughts are flying through your head right now. If you don’t work online, you’re probably thinking I’m slightly crazy and need to get out more (you might have a valid point there by the way).
If you do work online you might be thinking, ‘I need to do that more often’ or be asking yourself, ‘When was the last time I did that?’
The truth is before last Saturday, I can’t remember the last time I didn’t turn on my laptop every day.
I realize to a non-blogger this might sound a bit extreme.
But let me put it another way when was the last time you didn’t use your mobile phone all day?
Leaving it somewhere by accident and not being able to use it, doesn’t count by the way.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, working from home makes it much easier to quickly turn on the laptop and start working.
Being single and not having children certainly makes a difference as well. I don’t have any constraints on my weekend time, except for the ones I impose on myself, so I can work or play whenever I want.
I have been observing other bloggers and business owners lately.
I’ll give you an example. This Monday was a public holiday in Brisbane. As someone self-employed and ramping up her business, I rarely take public holidays off at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I do take some of them just not all of them.
When I first started working for myself, I wondered if other people either starting out or already established did the same.
I began to notice how many people with their own business were still working on Facebook and Twitter on public holidays. Granted many of their tweets and updates were automated but I noticed a lot were not. They were talking to each other and to my knowledge, I don’t think there is an automated system for this sort of conversation yet (if there is, by all means, let me know).
Technology has become such a big part of our lives (which as a blogger I am happy about) that sometimes we need to make a conscious decision to step away from it, even if it is only for a short time.
The interesting part is on the day I didn’t check my results, some of them did incredibly well. One of the stats I was following tripled during my day offline, while another quadrupled.
I’m starting to think I should take a full day off more often!
With my blogging conference in New York fast approaching, I don’t anticipate many days where I won’t be working on my laptop leading up to the event.
Take that back, I do have a birthday coming up this month and I might just take the whole day off. Then again, I could just quickly check my blog before heading off to brunch…
No matter how much you love working on the Internet and love blogging, there are times when you need to step away from it.
Put down the technology and have a digital detox, even if it’s just for one day. You deserve it.
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While I don’t work for myself or do the blogging thing full-time, I can see the value in taking a break on a holiday or for the weekend. It gives you time to recharge, refresh, and separate from your work.
Hi Joseph
Great to see you here again! You are right about taking time out to recharge. I am having most of the day off to celebrate my birthday with family and friends tomorrow and I am really looking forward to it since I worked a lot over the weekend. My birthday isn’t till the end of the month but with the conference pending, we thought we would celebrate a bit earlier. It’s going to be a fun day!
Thanks again for commenting and I look forward to seeing you here again soon.
Cheers
Thea
Hi Thea!
Ai Ai Ai!
That is a big truth. I totally agree with you. Since I started working from home I lost my Week ends and my public holidays. The truth hurts me a lot. When I was working for a company I had the feeling that I work for someone else so I thought that the correct thing to do is to respect me days off and myself. Now that I work for my own business I cannot stop my self. I have a laptop and an Iphone. I check my emails, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, the blogs and everything…from everywhere…even from my bed.
It is really exhausting. I also work on Saturdays and off course I usually work on public holidays…
Yep, I know, it seems crazy..
The thing is that I don’t have a constant revenue at the moment and I cannot just relax. I want to do whatever is possible in order to succeed.
What I realized a week ago is that at least I have to enjoy my life on the Island. If not, why I chose to come here…I should have stayed in the big city of Paris. So, what I have changed is that I started enjoying the life on the Island! I am going at the beach every day between 12-14 to swim under the sun of Chios Island 🙂
Have a great day!
Lenia
Hi Lenia
Great to see you here again! It is wrong for me to admit that I’m glad it’s not just me?? I was starting to think I was doing something totally odd.
When I worked for an employer I could walk out the door and forget all about work without a problem. It is so different now that I am working for myself. That is great that you are enjoying the outdoors more though now, like you said what is the use of living on a island if you can’t make the most of it? I think that makes perfect sense because you go back to work feeling recharged and ready for more. It would also be good for you health wise, I find that I am sitting for too long and having a lot of problems with my neck, despite the fact I bought a new fancy chair.
Have you found taking that time out to exercise helps with your productivity?
I hope you have a great day too.
Thanks for commenting, always wonderful to see you here.
Cheers
Thea
I work full time for a newspaper, which by definition almost requires me to be electronically in touch at all times. Every time I take a break, I seem to pay for it with a email that went unread for hours even though it required a quick response.
In contrast, I’m a part-time avid blogger, with more than 100 posts to my own name with my original blog TheParentRap.net, and a few more at my more serious marketing blog, TheMarketingPlaza.com. The only time I can blog for myself on either is on weekends and holidays, so that becomes my blog time, almost to the chagrin of my family.
It’s a constant balance, but I’m not happy if I’m not blogging. Hence, I just started a new blog at work AdsWithLegs.com due to launch in June, so I can blog unabashedly during the daylight hours of the workweek.
Hi Rhona
Lovely to see you here. Thank you so much for commenting.
WOW it sounds like you definitely have your hands full with the newspaper and other blogging pursuits. Good on you for doing something that you love though, I think despite the challenges it’s worth doing something that makes you happy. I wish you luck with the new blog, it’s good that you will be able to work on that one throughout the day. Are you still going to keep up with the other two blogs as well?
It seems to be Murphy’s Law that the minute we step away for a break that important email comes through despite the fact that we may have been watching email like a hawk up to that point.
Again thanks for commenting and I hope to see you here again soon.
Cheers
Thea