While traveling in Europe recently I decided to get crazy. My original plan for the trip was to mix business with pleasure; sure I’d see the sites while I was there AND I’d maintain my daily business activities also. Working with the seven hour time difference I’d set up calls, answer emails and post things to social media.

Then my friends (proverbially) slapped me into the moment and saved my trip. The point made was something like this:

 “SO…. You’re going to be in gorgeous countries with amazing things to see and…
You’re going to set aside hours of time to be holed up in your hotel room with wifi to “make business calls” that can just as easily be made when you get back?
Genius. What the heck are you thinking??????”

 A CHANGE OF PLANS

Thankfully I woke up and changed my mind. While I expected a much more relaxing time I didn’t expect the series of “a-HA!” moments that would happen as a result of detaching. I was going to go mostly offline and experience the whole “being in the moment” thing for an extended period of time.

 

After a few days of being (mostly) offline I posted the first of my “a-HA!” moments to Facebook along with a picture I took during on of my morning walks (the one at the top of this post).  This is what I wrote on Facebook:

 

After spending a few days in Copenhagen and 90% of the time offline I learned a couple things…

First, traveling is amazing when you can slow down, be in the moment and enjoy the views (like the pic I posted; that was on a morning walk yesterday).

Second, slowing down to live in the moment doesn’t have to be reserved to trips overseas. After setting up my first email auto responder and only answering my primary email and all social media outlets once this week and next week (anyone has access to me via text for time sensitive issues) I got more done creatively which is strengthening my business. Funny how that happened…

Yeah, there has to be a middle ground to discover during the crazy, run everywhere and do everything work week.

Now to find that middle ground when I get back home. I’m open to ideas if you’ve discovered that secret 🙂

 

I decided to capture these moments and post them on Facebook as a reminder and to create accountability to put things into practice after I got back to the state.

KEEPING UP THE MOMENTUM OF UN-URGENCY

After being back for a month I’ve kept up the momentum of NOT being “connected” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A few things I’ve put into daily practice include:

  • Keeping push notifications on my phone OFF for email and social media apps. If I want to look at my messages I open them. Everything isn’t urgent and I don’t need to lose focus in meetings or while writing for EVERY message that comes through.
  • Picking Saturday or Sunday to only check email ONCE. The rest of the day is for enjoying the weekend, relaxing, being creative or spending time with amazing people.
  • Helping my friends help me. I continue to tell people this story and let them know that if they need anything very time sensitive (changing a meeting time on the day of the meeting, needing an answer to a question with a three hour deadline or anything else truly urgent and important) they need to call or text me. This allows me to “respectfully untether”; while I’m not staring at my phone constantly I’m also easily accessible when needed.

The next two “a-HA!” moments in Europe built on this one, I’ll write about them soon.

What is ONE thing you can do TODAY to “untether” and be more focused on the project or people in front of you (and not the phone in your hand)?