Are you willing to turn off your digital life when on vacation?

I think the key to having a good vacation and 'turning off' the social networks is being able to delegate projects back to people in the office while you're away. I have no problem disconnecting from my personal Twitter and Facebook accounts (except for the occasional Foursquare check-in) but if no one is able to fulfill the need back in the office, a corporate account needs to be monitored... after all, you are the image of your company.

Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter Group) recently went on vacation and decided to take a vacation. Really. From a guy who is considered one of the biggest experts in the social media world, his blog post below is pretty telling. He went off the grid. And nothing bad happened when he came back : I think the key is making sure you organize your projects BEFORE you go.
See his blog post here : http://Ez.com/u7ej
Five Steps To Take a Vacation in a Highly Connected World

Yes and no. It is possible to balance your life and set priorities and then only answer the digital communications you need to, want to or would be downright foolish not to. This is also true for those communicques that come in at odd hours

It's about setting priorities and knowing what matters to you. When you decide what to answer and what to ignore or postpone, you can set profiles, sounds etc and know what is what and only answer what matters at that point in time. You are then in control of your digital technology rather than it being in control of you. Some of the multi-SIM phones make this even easier.

Sometimes the Universe just steps in and kills reception. Then you are forced to take a break no matter what you'd like to do unless you have a personal BCP, which would be somewhat crazy.

I am so NOT worried about missing anything on vacation. Obviously when we plan for a vacation, business issues are discussed and addressed prior to vacation. The sun will still come up the next day and business will go on.

My vacations consist of places without any cell coverage so it's easy. I also "unplug" on weekends. I would tire of social media if my phone was buzzing at me 24/7.

I work to live and I work hard to play hard.

New business opportunities NEVER take a break, so unfortunately I need to check my emails and VMs when I am on vacation. But I only check/reply to messages that pertain to new business. Everything else can wait until I get back in the office.

If I've planned properly for my vacation, then I don't find it too intrusive to 'quietly' keep up with things while I'm gone. Especially, the closer the vacation comes to an end - it's easier to return to work if I've cleared out some of the emails prior to being back at my desk. If I can do it on my phone, it typically gets done. If it requires powering up a laptop, I'm much less inclined.

Recently I was in Malaysia for vacation and assumed, based on my remote location, that I would have little to no cell service. So I had prepped everyone for this inevitability only to find that in a remote hiking lodge at over 11000 feet, we couldn't get hot water but had killer service!!

I surf often so it forces me to "unplug" often :)

A work in progress at best for me. I go as far as locking my devices in the hotel safe to remove myself from 'work stuff'. I find that if I communicate, even if I turn things off, I can not turn my brain off... there goes the vaca...
Recently I broke my rule and decided to make one phone call and saw one email I did not want to see. That created hours of conversations, worse broke my peace of mind.
So, I like the European model of total disconnect. Coming back refreshed and revitalized. Hawaii is a prime example of more more iPhones and Blackberry's around the pool, than frosty drinks with umbrella's. I am still trying to perfect the art of disconnection!

Yes – except for calls from my family! I don’t even check my email!

Yes! I have done it a few times. we need a life out of this "digital world" we are dragged into.
so you can count me as a "Yes"

Being an ex-pat with most of my friends on another continent, it's especially tempting for me to remain online 24x7. Having said that, and although I have an obsessive personality, I don't happen to have an addictive one: I've lived for years at a stretch with no TV or radio, and I can go a few weeks easily without the internet.

So I'm another "yes"!

If there is service where I am vacationing, I am online... unfortunately.

I am planning to try this for the first time next week when I go on vacation...we'll see how it goes. Usually I'm doing continuing education, research, reading, keeping up with the news, current events, stocks, etc. I'm planning on unplugging for 2-3 days and seeing if I can alter my sense of time and get refreshed--a lab experiment.

Yes

Oops... forgot the Focus spam filter eats answers less than 10 characters. Let me answer again, with gusto this time.

YES I AM...

I do not think that it is such a big thing to turn off your digital life not necessarily while on vacation. Problems are always there and will wait. Your subordinates will learn to manage. The greatest plus-point in the cell-phone is that the caller's name appears with the ring. Calls can be disabled.
Needs patent courage and the knowledge that "without your twirling the earth can spin, without your puffing the clouds go by"
Once you take a concious decision, everything will fall in place.

Unless its a planned vacation and everything seems in order in the office then yes I'm willing to but if i go on vacation and I know that the company can't run without me then I can't turn my phone off.

The whole point of a vacation is to actually BE on vacation. Craning over your laptop or smartphone while sitting on a beach somewhere doesn't really count. In order to get the mental health and emotional benefit of relaxing requires one to completely unplug from work life for the duration of the holiday - with few exceptions.

Echoing Kimberly Roden, I work hard so I can play hard.

I'm willing to do this, certainly.

On vacation, I typically check emails very infrequently, and rely on calls to my "Bat Number" to be alerted to major issues...

I would say the far better option is to switch off the digital life leaving the status gone on vacation and mention will be back on some date. I think its better to do one work at a time either vacationing or working. As doing both at same time does affect efficiency.

Vacation digital settings: Work = OFF Life = ON (reduced to a once daily check-in)

Mike

Wow, what an array of answers!

I closed by biggest, most profitable deal while vacationing in Singapore. Nope, I will not voluntarily cut off all electronic ties.

That said, I do 'turn off' social networking, and I check email and voice mail only at specific times each day, usually very early when it will have no effect on the rest of my family.

Together, let's out the fun back into work!
Belldon Colme
belldoncolme@gmail.com