Vacation Brain

2013-05-13 13.49.45-2

 

I think pre-vacation brain is like taper brain. I’ve managed to forget the simplest things, my mind is restless, I dream of calories in the form of beer, and I’ve checked the weather no less than 5 times today even though the weather should be sunny and gorgeous where I’m going.

I’m really looking forward to this vacation. Last time I went to Mexico, I literally turned my phone off the moment we landed and turned it back on only when we arrived back in Chicago after 6 days lounging in the sunshine with a margarita in hand. I’ve been thinking more about unplugging 100% for the 6 days, just as I did then. That feeling of becoming detached from technology was scary and wonderful at the same time.

I’m anxious to take some time away to READ. My Goodreads list is out of control and there’s no way that I would be able to read all of the books I want to read in my lifetime while still trying to hold down a regular job. I bought the three books above to devour on vacation. I’m a Kindle-reader and read 3/4 books on it. But I’m leaving it  at home, all by its lonesome. Maybe if I pretend I’m allergic to technology for the next week, quitting it cold turkey won’t seem so scary?

Have you ever done a technology detox? Was it as easy or hard as you thought it would be?

-J

18 thoughts on “Vacation Brain

  1. Outside Time (@itsoutsidetime) says:

    I’m love goodreads! It’s my favorite social network. I’ve found a ton of great books by browsing around on there.

    You could always bring your Kindle and just leave it on airplane mode. That way you’d still be “unplugged,” but you wouldn’t have to lug a ton of books around.

    • Jenny says:

      Goodreads is so addicting! I thought about bringing the Kindle anyway but I’ve been missing the feeling of holding a real book lately. Vacation is just another reason to go analog 🙂

  2. Jen says:

    I usually take the week between Christmas and New Year’s off from social media, and I limit my email checking to once a day. That week is a good week to go on a tech holiday because I should be focused on friends and family over the holidays, not the internet. Plus, everyone else is doing the same, so my FOMO levels are lower. 🙂

    Have a great time in Mexico!!

  3. Leslie @ TriathleteTreats says:

    I went to Costa Rica a couple of years ago and totally went unplugged. It was good! I missed my kindle because it was so much lighter than the 2 hardback books(from the library) that I took!! 🙂
    Have so much fun in Mexico! Be Safe!!

  4. Susan - Nurse on the Run says:

    Like Leslie, I went to Costa Rica a few years ago and swore I wouldn’t touch my phone/the internet. (The hotel had wifi, but my phone didn’t work.) The bump in the road was that I interviewed for a job a couple days before I left (the job I have now!), and they said they would call me the next week when I’d be out of the country. I told them this and they said they would email me…I was so worried about it that I let myself check my email once per day. They never ended up emailing me that week, oops.

    But otherwise it was SO great to not be connected to anything for a week. Enjoy!

    • Jenny says:

      I had a GREAT time! I didn’t totally disconnect but it definitely felt like I did. I was on my phone for all of an hour and a half over 5 days. That’s just crazy, considering I’m online for 8-9 hours a day. :sigh: can I go back yet??

    • Jenny says:

      I DID have a great vacation! 90 minutes of wifi access over 5 1/2 days….just what I needed! Then again, the tech detox wasn’t so difficult when I was sipping margaritas poolside. 🙂

Leave a Reply to Jenny Cancel reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s