Can you go without your cell phone or your Blackberry for a whole week?
For one week this past month, I actually went without my cell phone or my Blackberry. That’s right – nothing. Zip. Oh, OK, I DID have my laptop, but since I was in Thailand and 12 hours ahead, it wasn’t the same. Unless I was up in the middle of the night (which I was on occasion) I couldn’t really engage in e-mail or IM banter. So during the daylight hours, I was essentially incommunicado. Blackout. Not being bothered by urgent requests or details of what’s going on that I can’t do anything about anyway. And I have to tell you that although it was odd at first, it was really nice!
The funny thing was, I would see someone such as the gentleman on the right, who just couldn’t sit through an elephantshow in Thailand without pulling out his Treo. Is that what we’ve come to? Are we that addicted!? I challenge you to take one week without your Crackberry…
What I found while I was away was that when I got home, my world and my work were just as I had left them. No fires that went untended, no clients offended by my absence. That’s because I made sure I did one important thing before I left. I COMMUNICATED.
- I let clients and potential clients know that I would be out of the country and unreachable.
- I let my family know where and how to reach me in an emergency. Not expecting to hear from me made the after-school calls from SKYPE on my computer (only $0.02 per minute!) an extra special surprise for my kids.
- I let any callers know, via my outgoing voice mail greeting, that I was not checking messages and would call them when I returned.
- I made sure any projects were up-to-date or someone else was running with what needed to be done.
Ok, I was only gone for a week, but the world went on spinning and life went on living without me there. Sure, my kids and hubby missed me and I missed them.
To make sure I could always get away – and I did this with my former company, ACT, as well – I made myself expendable. After all - job security isn’t what it used to be. For entrepreneurs, you’ll never grow your company and still have a life unless at least parts of your business can operate without you. If you work for someone else, training your replacement is a good way to stand out when promotion time comes. So when was the last time you tried to make yourself expendable? How about working on that now?
