This is the third post in a series about the National Day of Unplugging. The first described my plan to unplug for twenty-four hours from work, with the goal of being more in the moment to better connect with the people around me. The second post, What I Found While Unplugged described a great “in the moment” moment that I shared with my wife, plus an unexpected connection thanks to an iPhone picture of my cat.
This post relates the experiences of my network. As I looked across the comments and Twitter, certain words kept coming up. Somewhat to my surprise, I wrote three Haiku, each composed entirely of words from Twitter. Then I wrote two more: one from an email and and one from my head.
Lesson 1: Unplugging was hard
Unplugged today
With Great Fear Of Missing Out
Uncomfortable
Many people, myself included, are on email and social media all the time. As I learned recently from reading The Power Of Habit by Charles Duhigg, email is a habit. It’s not easy to just unplug, and it takes a certain mindfulness to do something different. One person wrote to me the following: “I make it a point to stay away from Internet browsing on Sundays (my sabbath) as routine; just so I can get some distance and prove to myself that I’m not *actually* addicted.”
Lesson 2: Unplugging brought greater connection to family
Imagine Distance
Catching up with family
Love what you will gain
Here is my favorite quote in this category: “I unplugged over the weekend. Biggest lesson learned? It’s hard to care about your Klout score when you’re at the park with your son.”
Lesson 3: Unplugging brought perspective and control
Ideas whirling
Unplugged set them aside
Conscious brain rest
The biggest take away for many people, including me, was a greater awareness of the difference between plugged and unplugged time. “My plan is to be more mindful of my use, consciously schedule it. Like now, only 8 more mins on Twitter.” Several people ended up taking the whole weekend unplugged.
Lesson 4: Some people unplug every weekend
Dude you are preaching
To the choir – I uncork each
Week after traffic
Lesson 5: I should unplug more often
Now In Hawaii
I unplug till next Friday.
I’m on vacation
Unplugging brought more rest to the day of rest. Now that I’m here in Hawaii, “The Other Promised Land” I hope you’ll understand if I don’t respond till I get back.