Despite having posts appearing throughout the last week, I was on vacation in Michigan (I’ll probably post some photos next week!). Now we’ve dropped by some friends’ house on the way home and I’m checking my e-mail/blog and watching the Olympics. This last week has taught me a great deal about the importance of vacation.
While I’ve been working year-round for quite a while, this is the first year that I’ve worked full-time (with no school) all the way through. And even though I didn’t know it, my mind and body were ready to unplug and just take off. I set up the posts ahead of time and managed to spend less than 2 1/2 hours online in the entire vacation. Even tonight will bring it up to…maybe 3 hours?
Instead I’ve hung out with family (in-laws), taken walks, chatted with my step-grandmother-in-law about her novels’ successes, read purely for pleasure, quilted, spent time with Micah, swum in Lake Michigan . . . lots of simple things.
I realize that vacations are priceless, particularly for bloggers, I feel so much better emotionally and psychologically after not feeling pressure to keep up with the crazy pace of the web. I also think my vacation may shape my priorities over the coming year. Getting time off is important for regrouping and strategizing. Even if you can’t afford to go far, I strongly encourage unplugging for several days if you can just to get that breathing space.
Now I’m out of blog posts, but I hope to be caught up and posting regularly by Tuesday. The contest is still running, though if you subscribe you probably won’t see posts until Tues. Have a great weekend and be sure to give yourself a break!
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Glad it has been good. It is sometimes hard to explain what a change in pace, location, activity does for a person, but it can be invaluable.
I’m leaving for China next Sunday, so I guess I’ll be away from blogging for a few weeks.
I’m still not sure whether I should take my laptop or not, but I guess editing and posting pictures will be too time consuming, and I wanna enjoy Beijing!
I agree! Glad you had a good time and I’m especially glad that you were able to RELAX.
i’m glad you had a great time (I live in Michigan)! I’m going on a mini vacation of sorts starting monday (business trip for hubby…vacay for me) and then we’re going to Myrtle Beach for our anniversary in September. definitely well deserved. you seem to really have enjoyed the time away. 🙂
Hey, I know you!
You’re sleeping in my basement! I’m so glad you and Micah were able to stop by and hang out for a bit. 😀
Hopefully we weren’t too loud this morning! 🙂
I agree, vacations are great to get the mind freshened up!!
But you don’t need to have your site stagnate while you freshen up.
If you want to keep the posts rolling, even when you’re on vacation, you can always write a few in advance and then just set them on “timed release”.
@Francois, yep, that’s how I kept the site going. Ran out for the weekend, though. I was glad to hear recently that Blogger is allowing this too, which I think is a great move!
I totally understand this post. Vacations can do wonders, even a “Staycation” is great sometimes if you just need a mental break.
Welcome back though. 🙂
I used to have the American habit of “staying in touch” while I was nominally on vacation, but my very sensible husband insisted that vacation is vacation and I also learned to unplug. Good thing for the soul, but takes a while (for me) to unplug, so about 1/3 of my vacation was spent on that…the next 2/3rds minus 2 days on just “being there” and the last 2 days on beginning to worry again about what would be there to greet me/us when I/we returned… and you know what? the simple fact of being away was good, the insights that arrived after have de-compressed were better, and the creative solutions that somehow popped up were even better. But best of all was imply being somewhere else, as you say. So that was a long way of saying…how right you are”
Good to hear that you enjoyed your vacation and didn’t plan to write blog posts or write anything at all. Many people try and stay connected 365 days a year and could be headed for burnout. I think you have a healthy outlook on blogging and I for one could sure use your advice.
I totally agree — vacations (even if you don’t go anywhere) are so necessary for sanity! I actually read an article a few months ago that not taking vacations is bad for your health (I wrote about it here: http://www.findingeq.com/2008/06/10/not-vacationing-can-ruin-your-health/). Glad you enjoyed your trip and were able to let go of the online world for a little while! That is so important.
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