Are you as crazy busy as we are? I bet you are because crazy busy is the new norm. You find yourself rushing around from this practice to that practice, to school, to work, to social events, and add onto that late night conference calls, school volunteering, weekend errand running, it’s all about the rush and it gets overwhelming. Even our vacations are busy. We usually go to England once a year to visit my grandparents who are in their mid 90s. That trip is now focused on spending quality time with them and helping with whatever needs done around the house. This means from the time we get up to going to bed we are doing something. Grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning up, having tea, entertaining neighbors and odd jobs, we are literally busy bees the whole time. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t change this time with my grandparents for anything, but it’s not a reboot kind of vacation. Plus, we take our phones, laptops, tablets, etc so we are still connected to home AND work….
We also try to go on a vacation to a new location each year, usually somewhere international especially if we have airline points to use up or domestically if we are planning a family reunion. We usually multi task that vacation too. My hubs will say, hey lets go to Greece so I can do the 2500 year anniversary of the REAL marathon {I did remind him that the guy died, but that didn’t deter him}, hey lets go to Colorado for the family reunion this year, it almost always has to have a double reason to go. Again, don’t get me wrong – WE ARE BLESSED to even be able to go on vacation. I’m not complaining, just pointing out that even vacation is busy. We are usually rushing around to see everything and do everything, and again we bring our easy to access mobile devices to stay connected with home and work. SOOOO…..we are on overload even after vacation – we need a vacation from vacation – I know you know what I mean. It’s crazy and you know what’s the worst part…. WE DO IT TO OURSELVES. Sadly, we get that and understand it, but it’s hard to change in this fast paced, get it now, google it, post it, check in, tagging, selfie kind of life.
So here’s the thing, the ONE vacation we do as a family to completely relax is go on our annual trip to Mexico. My parents have a timeshare in Cancun. Flights are short and cheap. Meals are inexpensive for the most part and we do a lot of shakes and meals in the timeshare so this is what we call our cheap totally relax and do nothing vacation. The best part of this vacation is that the Mexico internet SUCKS! So we can actually disconnect for a 90% of the trip {who are we kidding we can’t 100% disconnect, it’s an addiction and we all have problems}. Not to discount our trips to visit my grandparents, other family members or exotic locations, but I have to admit this is our hands down all time favorite family vacation. All we do is swim, play with our son, have quality time with my parents and just freaking chill out for 5-6 days. We don’t obsess about the drama and crap going on back home in the cube halls or conference rooms. It’s amazing and we all come back refreshed, tan, and ready to hit the ground running again. Here are some photos of our Mexico trip this year:
So here’s the thing you don’t have to go out of town or to a place without internet to disconnect. Here are some simple tips to disconnect while at home {and we do most now but will try to implement all:
1. Sit down with the family for dinner every night and put your phone, tablet, laptop, or whatever away – talk to your kids {do brags & drags – what was the best part of the day and what was the least favorite}
2. Don’t let email or playing on your phone be the last thing you do before you go to bed. Take at least 15 minutes to decompress so you can have a good night’s sleep and you don’t all of sudden realize it’s 2AM.
3. Don’t put work email on your personal phone. This is one of my big things and it means I have to carry two phones – but at least if my work phone battery is dead or I turn it off – I don’t have the temptation to check it on my personal phone. Trust me you aren’t going to miss out on anything at work over night – the emails will still be there in the morning.
4. Turn off the social media and app notifications. Ignorance is bliss. Not knowing angry birds is begging for you back or that Jane just commented and repinned your pin, or that Jack just invited you to that last minute pool party, or that Sandra, a friends you “knew” in kindergarten just got engaged – all will still be there on social media when you check later. I absolutely hate having all those notification bing me every two seconds. Turn the notifications off or just delete the app.
5. Plan ahead and know what you need. In some cases, tech can make your life a whole lot better. Maybe you need GPS, so go ahead and buy an app but give yourself a timelimit otherwise you’ll find yourself in the App Store rabbithole losing hours on your smartphone when you could be reading with your kids, exercising or taking a bath.
Researchers at Kansas State University have found that although we may resist it, we really do need down time after work to mentally recharge for the next day. “Competition in the workplace is getting fierce,” researcher YoungAh Park said. “People may worry about job security, want to increase their salary or advance in their career, so they feel they have to be more dedicated to their work. They show that by being available outside of normal work hours through communication and information technologies.”
But continuing to communicate with colleagues after hours not only creates stress, but it prevents your brain from relaxing and recouping from a long work day in preparation for the next. {read more about this here}.
So please take time to disconnect so you can reboot and reconnect with the things and people that matter the most.
Now it’s your turn:
In the comments below tell me your tips to disconnect or how you plan to implement any of my tips. I’d love to hear from you.
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