Tip 5 - Unplug to Gain Clarity

One key lesson that I’ve learned in my 25 year journey is that unplugging can be a game changer. We live in a world where most of us stay continually busy. We often get so wrapped up in coming and going that we lose sight of what's truly important to us. It’s only when we hit the pause button on the busyness in our lives, that we can get a perspective of the bigger picture. My 5th tip: Unplug to Gain Clarity. 

I first learned this in the 90’s when I provided production support for a ticket revenue system for a large airline. Every evening at 4 pm a series of computer programs ran in a particular sequence. Had this been well designed, it would have finished by midnight. Because it had a tremendous number of programming issues, most nights the “daily” cycle ran overnight and well into the next day. When I was on call, any time one of the programs failed, I got paged (does anyone remember pagers?). I was frequently awakened multiple times, in the same night, to fix problems.

After a few months, I got really good at troubleshooting problems. I became seen as an expert. Although we rotated the pager, people on call started calling me when they couldn’t figure out the solution, even in the middle of the night. They were very apologetic, but they still called. The culture was - if there is a production problem, you must find a way to fix it, even if that means waking someone up who is not on call.

There were no boundaries.

During my second year on the job, I took a week-long cruise with my family. Generally, even when on vacation, we were expected to be reachable. At the time, cell phones were still fairly new. Most of us had one. Yet, contacting someone on a cruise ship, out of the country, was virtually impossible (I think emergency calls cost about $25 per minute). My management team accepted that I would be unavailable. For the first time in over a year, I unplugged.

When I returned to work the next week, several of my coworkers commented on how relaxed I looked. I felt refreshed and recharged. Unfortunately, it only took a few days for the stress of the job to hit me again. Yet, I had a new perspective. I realized that my team had survived without me. I was no longer ok with people being able to contact me at will. I asked for a boundary - to only get calls when I was actually on call. It only took a few weeks and a couple major production issues to realize that this boundary was not one that anyone was prepared to respect. 

A few weeks later, a couple of friends were at my house when my pager, which was sitting on the coffee table, went off. Instead of picking up the pager and stopping the beeping, I just sat there and glared at it, as if my dirty look might make it stop. My two friends looked at each other, as if I had just lost my mind. I noticed their glances, snapped out of it, and finally shut off the pager. 

Sometimes you can’t see the cage until you are free.

After I unplugged, I was able to look at my situation from a different perspective. I realized the job was affecting my state of mind. My boundaries would never be respected, the work environment was toxic. A few months later, I left the job.

That project was a turning point for me. It taught me the value of unplugging. I started viewing vacation as a reset; an opportunity to separate completely from my current situation. I began taking inexpensive trips to the Caribbean 2-3 times per year, to disconnect and recharge. This unplugging usually gave me a new perspective about what was going on in my life. Areas that had been challenging frequently had new clarity.

When was the last time you completely unplugged? For too many of us it’s been years.

So much of our work and personal lives revolve around electronic devices.

We use the same devices to check work email or Slack, to communicate with our children, to order food, to get directions, to take pictures, to manage our schedule, and to coordinate getting together with friends. Completely unplugging often seems impossible. Even disconnecting on vacation requires deliberate intention, now that our cell phones work all over the world.

As challenging as it may seem, I believe that unplugging and slowing down can be one of the best things you can do for yourself. When we are caught up in things, we often lose perspective. When we unplug, we are able to see the bigger picture.

Where in your life have you lost sight of the big picture?

I recommend that you consider two types of unplugging: unplugging completely and structured unplugging. Unplugging completely might involve taking your family camping or to a national park and turning off your phones for a few days. A few months ago, I turned off my phone and laptop for 2 days and it was incredibly nourishing. 

Structured unplugging involves creating guidelines and boundaries around your use of electronics. Maybe take a weekend where you turn off all notifications and only use your phone for texts, calls, calendar, and Uber. Or perhaps, go on a social media fast. Maybe you only turn your phone on at certain times during the day. The possibilities are infinite.

What could shift in your life, if you took some time to unplug?

Take a moment to close your eyes and imagine what it would be like to spend a day with no electronic distractions? 

When have you ever unplugged, or taken some form of a media fast? What impact did it have on you? Will you unplug over the holidays? Please share your stories in the chat.

Tip #5: Unplug to Gain Clarity