How to take a digital sabbatical
You are not tethered to your device. Your devices do not control you. YOU control THEM.
This is something we need to remember, and something that can be helpful if you decide to take a digital sabbatical (I take them regularly, even as an entrepreneur).
Decide on your dates. Then stick to them. This is often the hardest part of taking any vacation for an entrepreneur or anyone else who does a lot with digital devices.
Tell only those who need to know. The more people you tell, the more there will be opinions. Announcing it on social media for instance, might trigger people who leave annoying comments. People’s negative opinions will be projections onto you of how they feel they would be judged, for doing the same thing. Nonetheless, people will have opinions and the less you hear of them, the less drama there will be.
Don’t put up an auto-responder unless there is important information that someone might need while you are away. In essence, when people put up the, “Hey, I’m taking a digital sabbatical, see you in 30 days” email, they are effectively creating MORE email for everyone else.
Literally log off of ALL digital devices. Don’t just get off of your phone, but still check the internet. You’ll end up satisfying the urge to crawl social media on your phone, with scrolling through stuff on your laptop. Just go totally digital-free. If you’re doing it, do it.
Pre-schedule social media and newsletters. Entrepreneurs often think that they can’t take a digital sabbatical because if they do, all marketing in their business will fall apart. Instead, just schedule things in advance. Once you’ve taken your first digital sabbatical it will be humbling to realize just how many people were NOT sitting next to their devices waiting for your next social media post.
Give yourself a fun alternative thing to do that doesn’t involve a device. Get a stack of books from the library. See friends. Go hiking. If you have no alternative plans, you’re more likely to default back to the old way of handling things—being on your phone or computer.