Back in mid-July, I mentioned that I was going to try and go on a short holiday without any devices. It was only a few days, after all, so how difficult could it be? Apparently, harder than I thought!
With my iPad and computer safely stored at home, I headed out for a few days of peaceful solitude, interspersed with some of the best theatre Canada has to offer. My phone came with me for safety, and just in case there were emergencies at the kid’s camps. All sound and vibration was turned off and the plan was for it to remain safely stowed in my purse. Ah, but for the best laid plans….
Day one was a breeze. In a new place, with lots to keep me occupied, the phone stayed put. I read in the park, I window-shopped, I did some journaling while enjoying a cup of premium java in a local coffee shop and of course there was the main reason I was there; plays by Coward and Shakespeare kept me entertained.
Day two was a different story. It started innocently enough. My cousin, her husband and two young boys were on a crazy 4-person bicycle journey between London and Paris and I was dying to see how far they’d gotten. A quick peek at Facebook over breakfast gave me the update early in the morning. I hadn’t found a newspaper, so in the late afternoon, I snuck a look at Twitter to see what was going on with Syria and Iraq. In the evening, after a yet another spectacular play, I simply had to tweet about the experience. I could easily justify it as one PR pro giving another PR pro some raw material to work with, right? Oh, and I discovered one of the camps just posted photos – were my kids in any of them? And seeing as how I was online, there was no harm in checking out my blog stats….
And down the slippery slope I went.
Now the silver lining in all of this is that I did manage to keep my tech-temptations to my personal life. I did not check work email, or sneak a look at Hootsuite to see what social media was saying about my company and the industry.
The lesson in all this? I’m not good at resisting temptation. Next time, even if the phone has to come with me for safety, it needs to stay in the car!!!
