The Thoughts on Translation household recently returned from a great vacation; a 337 mile bike ride across our home state of Colorado, finishing with a camping trip in Dinosaur National Monument. This vacation was 100% unplugged (a concept that I wrote about last summer): no Internet or cell phone access for 10 whole days! The plus of this kind of vacation is that it’s a complete mental break: I did not think about work more than a couple of times, other than to jot down a few ideas for long-term projects I’d like to work on. The minus is the backlog to which one returns when one does not check e-mail for 10 days…if I didn’t realize that I was back from vacation when I slept in my own bed, I surely realized it when I downloaded 432 unread e-mail messages. Back to reality!
Because I like to take at least one unplugged vacation every year, I’ve developed a few strategies to cope with post-vacation re-entry. First, I force myself to make peace with the opportunities that I missed while I was away. I just write a courteous “Thank you very much for thinking of me for this project, and of course please keep me in mind for the future” e-mail to anyone who contacted me for work while I was away. Then, when it comes to dealing with those 432 unread e-mails, I implement a technique that I call library arrest. We’re all familiar with the concept of house arrest, but placing yourself under house arrest is minimally useful when your living room is carpeted with filthy camping gear and your fridge contains a lonely jar of horseradish. The post-vacation urge to get things done around the house is just too great. And a café can be too distracting; plus there’s often minimal room to spread out.
Enter the local college library, complete with WiFi, big empty tables (it being, after all, the middle of the summer), freezing cold air conditioning and absolutely nothing to do except work. And if you park yourself in a section where the library’s materials are of no interest to you whatsoever, so much the better! Using the library arrest technique, I was able to make a good dent in my inbox in just a couple of hours rather than the endless days that I envisioned when I first looked at those messages. Feel free to contribute your own post-vacation recovery solutions too!
Welcome back and congratulations on your awesome unplugged vacation. After having spent one month in Sweden (not unplugged, but not taking on new projects) and soon leaving for an 8 day “off the grid” river rafting vacation, I can certainly relate. Adding the fact that kids are on summer break does not help. I am one week into “catching up” and can now see the light in the tunnel. The library suggestion is a great idea. One of my perks/goals of being my own boss is to be able to take long or unplugged vacations, especially while the children are still interested and available.
Welcome back! I too am a fan of “pure” vacations. I managed two weeks last summer. For me, being able to unplug is a sign of success, though many of my peers in the über-plugged-in San Francisco Bay Area regard it as an indication that I’m some sort of medieval Luddite. 🙂
I remember that when I used to go on holidays with my friends, during my teenage years, there were no cell phones and it was incredibly refreshing to be absolutely disconnected from the world. Thumbs of to you for having the courage to go through with it.
By the way, I often return to my university’s library to get some work done, even though I don’t have a fancy name for this process like you 🙂
Good luck getting back to real life now.
Welcome back Corinne! I am happy you enjoyed your holiday so much! I think unplugged vacation is always a good idea. Our brain needs new energy… Otherwise you just get to the point where everything seems too hard for you. I’m almost there… but I need to wait 3 more weeks before having a break. In the meanwhile I finished your book. Great job! Congratulations!
I follow your blog since a few months and it, in addition to your book, has greatly helped me establishing as a freelance translator. So Thank you!
This is my first comment here and what I note, being a former paleontologist, is that you finished your vacation by the Dinosaur National Monument… How lucky you are! During my previous career as a scientist I went twice to the US, but never had the chance to visit this part of the country, sadly.
Anyway, glad to hear that you had refreshing holidays!
Sounds like you had a great vacation. I came back from my vacation in Florida to a dead computer. After trying to get a tech my friend recommended to come out (to no avail), one of my friend’s husband who works for the Geek Squad is coming to my place on Friday with a new computer (with Windows 7 and a parallel XP environment so I don’t have to upgrade all my dictionaries and tools). I’ve been working from my laptop, but that means I’ve been off Twitter and haven’t been keeping up with my invoices and finances. Ugh. Luckily business has been somewhat slow, which I am relishing.
What a wonderful idea! Library arrest sounds almost as peaceful as the wilderness itself!
In summer I quite often do early morning gardening for others and “unplug” inasmuch as I refrain from even walking into my study before setting out. It clears the head, that is for sure.
Great strategy, Corinne, I love it! While my work/fun trip was not unplugged at all, I do have a lot to do here in Vegas since returning from Europe 48 hours ago. Expenses to be logged, paperwork to be done, etc. My first order of business was to ignore the unpacked suitcase — at least for a day — while I made a dent in my to-do-list. I am almost caught up. 🙂 Your bike ride sounds fantastic. One of these days I will manage to take an unplugged vacation!
Wow, that’s some serious biking! Sounds like an amazing trip. 🙂
Regarding “library arrest”, I’ve had that thought before and dismissed it, telling myself libraries (especially empty ones) were too quiet and uninspiring, which would drain my energy. However, it took your post to show me my idea from the other side, which is that if you might be “overstimulated” in your home environment, e.g. during the summer vacation, “quiet and uninspiring” might suddenly seem “calm and peaceful”, enabling some good focus time.
Thank you, I’ll be heading out to the library Monday!
400 + emails during 10 day absence! That means about 40+ emails a day, and it brings me a mild headache already. 🙂 Thanks for the great idea of ‘library arrest.’ It’s practical and really seems working. To me house arrest doesn’t always work because it’s either too comfortable or too tiring. I mostly work at home but I could use a ‘library arrest’ every now and then.
By the way, unplugging is truly liberating, isn’t it? Thanks!
Thanks for your comment! Yes, for better or worse, once you put yourself out as a source of information on the web, I actually think that 40+ e-mails a day is pretty common or even on the low end. But library arrest helps! Thanks for visiting.