Peter Sorgenfrei explains how to actually unplug from work. The barrier isn't your job demanding you stay connected, it's your own habit and curiosity. He walks through telling colleagues you're off, finishing what matters, defining what counts as emergency, silencing your phone, and scheduling brief check-ins.
Unplugging is tremendously important to have a whole life, to have what I call the whole human life. We're professionals, we're private individuals, we're partners, we're solo people, right? We're also our own. And so we kind of have to have a balance around those things. But I think that a lot of people struggle with this. If I'm super busy in my job and in my personal life, how can I find time to unplug? How can I decide to shut down my digital channels as I'm doing in a couple of weeks? How do I go about that? And the short answer is it's not easy, but like many other things, it starts with communication. It starts with explaining to those around you that you're planning on doing it, why you're doing it, and what you hope to have happen when you come out on the other side. And so a simple thing like saying, the next time I'm on vacation, I'm not going to be available for phone calls or emails or messages. And so in order for all of us to prepare for that time, What do we need to do? What is it that we need to have finished? And when I'm away, if something happens that you think you'll need my opinion on, can it wait? And what are the things that wouldn't be able to wait? What are the things that will happen in our business that you need my perspective on right then and there? Let's identify those. Let's talk about what our answer is to those. And if you do that exercise with the people that work with you, many of you will experience that there isn't anything that can't wait. There isn't that emergency that they need to disturb your vacation to get resolved. And actually, the biggest barrier to unplugging and being away, it's not them, it's you. It's your curiosity about what's happening back at the office. It's your habit of constantly checking the channels, checking your phone. And so if you can't manage that for some reason, a simple thing to do is to uninstall all the apps off of your telephone, put it on silent mode while you're away, and set a time when you check it. In the morning or in the evening, only to listen to voicemail if you see you received a number, a phone call from a number that you recognize—a parent, a sibling, a friend. Otherwise, you just put the phone back where it was. You go about your day. You go about your vacation. And when you come back, people will say. Nothing happened. Everything went fine. And once you start doing that a couple of times, it'll become easier and easier. So if you feel like it's difficult to take time off to unplug, remember, communication, planning, and self-management are the keys to do it successfully without incident. And it will be a good experience for you. I hope this helped thinking about how you can unplug when you feel tremendously busy. And as always, if I can be of any service, help you with anything, please do let me know. I'd be, be glad to engage with you.
