I’ve talked about this a bit before, but I figured now would be a good time to revisit the topic with the August long weekend on the horizon. During these past few months, when it’s more relaxed and more comfortable just to exist online, disconnecting has never been more critical. Over the past few months, where we have been in quarantine and unable to get away, it has been harder to escape our daily routines. For the most part, this is ok (being a guy who thrives on my daily routines). Those routines can become tedious, and it’s important to get out of them every once and a while.
1) Always being connected is bad – To be clear, I’m not advocating not using technology (that would be crazy), but what I would say is that being continually connected is not great for you. With so much news, e-mail, texts and social media bombarding us every day, it’s important to step away every once and a while. Personally, being connected is a part of my job, so if I’m able to access the internet, usually I’m working. It’s extra essential for me to find a space where I’m not “on call.” I do this in a couple of different ways. I am very strict about when I answer e-mails. If it’s after a particular time of night (barring emergencies), I don’t return e-mails. I rarely even look at my e-mail. It’s my way of ensuring that I get time in my day to day life to be away from the world and spend time with the people around me.
2) Work-Life Balance – I have to admit, I’m a bit of a workaholic. I don’t mean this in a bad way. I love doing what I do, so being able to do it whenever I can is excellent. The problem is that I can get sucked into doing my job too much. Even when I’m on vacation, I will spend a little bit of time keeping an eye on my e-mail. To counter this, I love going up to my cottage in the summers. We haven’t installed the internet up there, and there is terrible cell signal. This means that I am blissfully forced not to check my e-mail, keep an eye on the latest news, or check out what’s happening on Social media. It is, for me, a great getaway from the world. I find that if I’m able to set the boundaries between my work life and my home life, I can generally be more effective in both my work and my life.
3) The Importance of Hobbies – Sometimes, the best way to disconnect is to have something to occupy your mind with something that you wouldn’t normally occupy your mind. Hobbies are great because they come in all manner of forms. Playing sports, video games, painting or playing an instrument are great ways to get yourself out of your routine. When I was younger, I liked to dabble in a bit of amateur carpentry. At the time, I was a file clerk for a Property Management firm, spending most of my time sitting behind a desk flipping through pages and answering e-mails. Going and doing physical labour to make things like tables and chairs was wildly out of my regular “Monday to Friday 9-5” routine. It was great. If I’m honest, I wasn’t the most exceptional carpenter in the world, but I know that my father in law still has a couple of the tables that I made in his shop, so I must not have been too bad. One of the hobbies that I have been working on for the past ten years is collecting Batmobiles. I took the time to talk about it a few weeks ago. Having hobbies allows you to step out of your routine and recharge your brain.
At the end of the day, it’s essential to walk away from your routine occasionally. Walking away from connectedness allows you to get rejuvenated and more energized when you come back to the world. Spending too much time doing a day to day routine with no breaks can get tedious, and with the past few months of doing roughly the same thing over and over and over again, tedium is a serious thing that we need to pay attention to. With the August Long Weekend coming up and the Labour Day weekend not too far on the horizon, I would encourage you to go offline and take some time to find something that you can do that’s outside of your normal routine.
What do you do to Disconnect?
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