Always On to Always Off in 5 Steps
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
I’m still toying with the idea that when the end of the year comes I might turn my life from always on and available to always off and unavailable – the 70’s and 80’s, so to speak. I don’t think its necessary to be a total isolationist, but I’m interested to see how it works in the real world – will I shrink and die a horrible lonely ignored death?
So how do you turn yourself off in 5 easy steps? Here’s the obvious answer, but one we’ll ignore until it hits us directly in the chops…
Step One. Disengage yourself from your mobile telephone. Its a sham. Why are you paying a fifty or a hundred Australian dollars per month for that piece of rubbish. Is text worth it? That’s a lot of cash you’re forking over. And when someone phones you at 3am they’re pissed off that you’re pissed off – right… ditch the phone. If you have a pager – yep, into the rubbish.
Step Two. Disengage from email, instant messenger, Facebook and any other social networking or online communication tool as much as possible. One work email for necessity and one non-work email (for example, its a requirement of the university course) if you have no option, but only check the private email once per day at most. The business email is used from 8.30am to 4.30pm on weekdays.
