Tune Out, Turn It Off

When it comes to work/life balance, the ability to tune out and turn it off may be one of the key elements to success. With today’s technologies it is simply too easy to stay connected to everything and everybody. Companies expect you to check-in, even when on vacation. But how can it truly be a vacation if you can’t walk away from it all, if only for a few days? While I’ll admit to being somewhat addicted to email access, that’s not the case when it comes to work email. I can and do leave work at work.

One way that I’ve been able to maintain the balance is to have separate email addresses – one primarily for work, one for mailing list sign-ups and registrations and one for personal. Granted it didn’t start out that way. Trying to wean friends to a different email address has not been consistent. Often they hedge their bets and send them to both addresses. Changing some email alerts/sign-ups (mostly for music and theatre) to a different address has seemed to be too much effort. Sometimes by doing so I ended up getting duplicated alerts. But overall, the transition has been helpful. I’ve found it easier to manage my daily emails simply by separating them. When I am not at the office, I try not to check work email. Do I always stick to that rule? No, sometimes I take a sneak peak at who sent the emails but not usually the email itself. I will admit that I tend to do this most during my hyper-busy work season and then not so much thereafter. Sometimes I’ll check because I’ve email a client who is also a friend from the work email on a work day and had not yet received a response to something personal in nature. Does it help that I do not have a Palm, a Blackberry or an iPhone? Probably, yes. But I simply do not want or especially need emails trailing me everywhere I go.

It is true that by staying connected more opportunities to do business on a global basis are available. But it might also create the assumption that we want to work 24/7? And maybe we don’t need or really want to? I see myself buying an iPhone when the second generation is released soon. But my reasons for doing so have nothing to do with business. It’s a toy to play with from the GPS to the photo/music storage to the weather forecasts around the globe. I’ve never been one to require the newest “tech” toy on the market. I’m actually more old school more so spouting that if it’s not broken don’t fix it. And that includes not only hardware but software as well. But the planned obsoleteness of cell phones seems to be less than two years. And that doesn’t include unexpected damage, for that oops I dropped it or got it wet! For when I make this purchase (happy birthday to me), my web address for online access will be with one known only to me. With so many free emails accounts available, I will take advantage of the technology without it taking advantage of me. If I want to access my other emails accounts I’ll obviously have the ability to do so. But my guess is that in the normal course of things I won’t. I check email often enough during the course of the day that I doubt that being unavailable for short periods of town will ever matter.

All of this applies despite or in more likely in spite of the fact that I’m back to a three day/week work schedule (after a grueling six days a week for several months); I’m out of the office for as many days as I am in. I’m a one person business that relies on voice mail as my regular administrative assistant. The voice mail message is changed if I’m gone for a week or more. But my generic email now seems good enough! I’m trying to be more flexible with the three days I work this year. The past eight years, I’ve maintained a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday schedule. But this year as opportunities arise to do something different on one of those days, I’m swapping out a Thursday to work instead. Mix it up a bit I say! So instead of changing the voice mail each time the week changes, it simply says that no one is available to take the call. But more importantly it continues and says that the voice mail is not monitored when the office is closed. When I leave work, I leave work at work. I do not call in for messages. I walk away for it and live the rest of my life. At the same time, I sometimes but not always often put on the “away” message on the work email account indicating that I am away from email and the date of my return. The fact that I am unavailable if I am not in the office is very clear.

What you need to ask yourself if you find yourself too connected is whether or not you are doing this to yourself? I learned long ago that there was no such thing as an accounting emergency – except of course the one that the client created in their mind. Unless you are a medical doctor of some kind or up against a pressing deadline, is every phone call or email an emergency in your business? Can you turn your phone off for the night? Can you check emails in the morning and not on the weekend? My guess is that in most cases the answer will be yes. The problem is that we have been so addicted to the technology that we simply do not turn it off. It is needless to say harder to do if you work for someone else who is just as addicted. The expectation becomes part of your job. Unless the corporate culture in fact changes, the guilt associated with being a maverick is not worth the effort (or your job!). But as an entrepreneur, YOU are the boss. YOU create your own working environment. Your employees, if you have them, look to YOU to create to standards.

YOU have the power to make the changes in how you do or do not tune out and turn it off. I have learned a lot over the last eight years as I’ve lived the changes I made to go back to my business simply being me. After 10 years of business growth, I spent the next seven years downsizing three times. I’m back to where I started, albeit it not working at home. If I downsize myself, I’ve either sold the business or simply retired! I’ve learned that my clients have adjusted to my schedule and my choices. Many in fact have told me that they have learned from what I’ve done, in a positive way for their own lives. More than one person has told me that they want to be me when they grow up. These are overstressed people who are older than me but simply have not learned to say no, especially to technology. No one has clamored for my time or been angry that I’ve not been available. I have always taken care of their needs on a timely basis and with the utmost professionalism that they have come to expect. I am my business. But my business is no longer the only me.

What I do by tuning it out and turning it off is to refresh my mind. So when I am in the office, I’m less stressed, more focused on the tasks at hand and ready to be truly productive. When I travel, sometimes I take my laptop with, most times I don’t. When I do, it’s not because I want to be connected to work but because I want to do some creative writing or stay connected with friends. Having my laptop with me simply allows me the freedom late at night or during a respite to do something like write this article or surf the web in a way I don’t always do at home. By my not signing on to my work email, I can use technology without being suffocated by it.

As entrepreneurs we are usually the ones to “call the shots”. Our need to be in control can however backfire. By controlling too much of our work life we lose control of the rest of our lives. We can choose when to check email and when not to. Just because there is the ability to be connected 24/7 doesn’t mean that we have to use it. Remember that the next time that you take a day off, leave for the weekend, take a vacation or simply go home for the day. You too can tune out and turn it off!




Tune Out, Turn It Off - To learn more about this author, visit Debbie Lessin's Website.

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