Credit for the new header image: “Cambodian Sanskrit in the temples of Angkor” by iStock member Yangshuo.
Michelle Rafter has a great post this morning called Time Out, on the merits of unplugging from your computer. In the post, Michelle references another blog post from a writer who takes a “technology sabbath” from Friday evening to Saturday evening, during which time he doesn’t use his computer or cell phone for work-related purposes. Michelle writes that she likes to get out of the office and go for a hike to decompress.
I will say that I agree wholeheartedly with this advice. There are times when being immediately available has its bonuses; if a client needs to call at a specific time with an update or question, it’s nice to be able to take the cell phone to the park, answer the call and then continue with the hike. But I do feel that more often, being “always on” is more a result of our own fantasies of indispensability than anything else, and that the vast majority of the time, we actually can afford to unplug for a few hours and get out from in front of the screen. In my own case, I take at least one computer-free vacation a year (and by vacation I mean ten days to two weeks, not a long weekend) and make sure to get outside and away from the computer for part of every day. Lately, my family has been experimenting with growing a lot of our own food, and I’ve found that there’s nothing like an hour of pulling weeds to really clear the brain!
Interestingly enough, many freelancers don’t seem to feel this way. Last year I was talking to another translator at the American Translators Association conference in San Francisco and the subject of vacations came up. When I told the other person that my family would be taking a two-week “beach and wildlife” trip to Baja over Christmas and punctuated it with “Two weeks without phone or e-mail, can’t wait!,” this person paused for a moment and then said “I didn’t know people still did that.” Granted, this vacation was during a time of year when many people take time off and business often slows to a crawl, but I have to say that my business didn’t suffer any ill effects, I really didn’t check e-mail or phone messages for two weeks, and best of all I was excited to get back to work at the end of the trip.
Unplugging: try it, you’ll like it!
I was *just* about to write an entry on my blog about taking weekends off. You beat me to it! I try to take the weekend off as much as possible. After translating 2,000 to 3,000 words a day Monday through Friday (or in the case of last week 4,000+) my arms and fingers need a break from the keyboard to recuperate. It drives me crazy that my phone rings off the hook and e-mail in box gets bombarded with job offers on Friday afternoon for jobs that are due on Monday. Regular employees get the weekends off, so it is up to us to ensure we take the necessary time off as well to avoid burning out. It doesn’t necessarily have to be on the weekend, but I find it easiest because I imagine it would be hard to explain to your clients that you take Mondays and Tuesdays off. 🙂
Corinne,
A good topic for all freelancers (and small business owners); I often ask my freelancers if they find the time to vacation. Some say ‘absolutely,’ others say ‘are you kidding?’
I agree with you that we keep connected often to make us feel indispensible. It’s those times when I lug my laptop and cellphone around to stay in touch that I hear nothing but the crickets chirping. And then when I leave the house for a weekend with nothing but my keys and my toothbrush the phone and email go crazy.
Glenn
Very good topic. Early in my career (late 90s), I’d lug around my cellphone and laptop everywhere I went. I’ve banged out translations while camped out in the mountains and from tropical beaches.
However, I’ve found that this really hurts the quality of my vacations and tends to exasperate family members as well. So I now make it a point not to bring work with me on vacations if at all possible. In 2007 I took two 2-week vacations during which I did no work at all (including not reading any work-related email!). That was the longest I’ve taken off from work since I started freelancing 10 years ago.
What was surprising for me was that in 2007 I earned about the same as my average. Maybe part of it was from being energized, and part from work piling up and waiting for me when I got back 🙂
Sorry, I forgot to mention that I blogged a while ago about the importance of slacking. And you thought it was just fun! 🙂
Great post Corinne! And a great reminder.
My 3-year old daughter today complained that I did not read her enough stories this week-end as I was working on a large project due tomorrow morning…that woke me up and I realized: “I am French after all”! I need my vacation!
We are not indispensable and the projects will keep on coming!
So Monday will be my Sunday and the computer and cell phone will be turned off!
Merci.
Marianne
Corinne:
Thanks for linking to my blog post about taking time off. Evidently we’ve struck a chord, as evidenced by the reaction this topic got with your readers too. As small business owners, which is what we independent contractors are after all, it is difficult to say no to work. But by accepting all assignments no matter what the mental and physical cost, we deplete ourselves and if we keep doing it, we’ll eventually lose the abilities our clients hired us for in the first place, that is a sharp, fresh mind, whether for writing or translating.
Thanks again for continuing the conversation.
Michelle Rafter
WordCount
michellerafter.wordpress.com
Thanks to everyone who commented on this post, it’s really enlightening to read your replies! I remember that a while ago in the ATA Chronicle “Business Smarts” column, they gave the advice to (I’m paraphrasing here) “think of yourself as your own employee; think whether you would ask an employee to do what you ask yourself to do.” I thought this was a really helpful perspective.
Also I love Michelle’s observation that when we overwork ourselves, we lose or at least dull the qualities that draw our clients to us in the first place. I like to think of myself as a little more meticulous than the average translator, but this isn’t true after 5 nights of working until 11:30, so I think I’m doing my clients a disservice by pushing myself too hard.
Thanks again!