Ev BogueG.B. likes to ask questions that cut to the heart of our experience of the Internet. Recently, she asked the below questions about digital sabbaticals to her readers.
Last year, I took the month of August off from my digital life. Going away changed everything.
Have you taken a digital sabbatical? Write a blog post about your experience. Link to G.B.'s post and you might get featured.
You're welcome to link to this post also, if you want to.
G.B.: Describe the moment at which you decided you needed to unplug.
It was July of 2010 -- I was living in Oakland, CA with my girlfriend at the time.
I don't remember the exact moment, but I do remember feeling overwhelmed by my digital life.
I'd been building Far Beyond The Stars (my blog at the time) for a year -- and the blog was reaching 75,000 readers per month.
I was making more money than I ever had from my work and the blog, but with that came a sense of dissatisfaction with how I was approaching the work.
At the time I had comments open on the blog. Every time I posted, my blog comments would quickly spiral out of control. Most of June/July every time I posted (I had a semi-regular schedule still at that point -- writing 3 blog posts a week) each blog post would quickly rack up anywhere from 45 to 250 comments.
I woke up in the middle of the night occasionally, checking to see if my posts had been flamed or spammed while I slept.
My grandfather called, I was invited to their yearly 10-day camping trip in the lake-filled territory of northern Wisconsin. I said yes.
I wrote and scheduled three blog posts for while I was gone.
I turned off my blog comments.
I booked a ticket to Chicago.
G.B.: How long were you unplugged?
Ev: Around a month -- 10 days in the forest, camping on a lake.
G.B.: Were there any moments you cheated? Or wanted to cheat? Describe the feeling.
I recall I flipped on my iPhone to escape during the first few days. I was so used to checking into Twitter constantly. I felt alone without the voices in my mind.
So I'd find myself unconsciously turning the iPhone on, and jacking into the grid. Then I'd catch myself, turn it back off, and return to being present with whatever was going on around me.
G.B.: Who supported you during your sabbatical?
I spent almost the entire time with my family (who I was essentially visiting,) so they were always around.
The best times I can recall were out on a kayak in the middle of a lake at sunset, in complete quiet.
G.B.: What do you wish you had done differently during the sabbatical?
I was incredibly nervous about my business remaining profitable while I was gone. I wish I'd just chilled out and trusted in the systems that I'd constructed.
G.B.: Will you take another one? If yes, why? If not, why not?
Yes. I'm aiming for July of this year. Why? Because the Internet is an awkward place right now -- social crash happened, and now I'm waiting to see what's next.
A digital sabbatical in summer will bring some perspective.
G.B.: What surprised you most about unplugging?
Ev: When I came back from the sabbatical and ran the numbers from my e-book sales, I found that my month away was more profitable than the month prior.
Whether I was on social media, or answering all of my comments, it didn't matter. I just needed to let the systems do their job and the work speak for itself.
G.B.: What insights did you gain about yourself by taking a Digital Sabbatical?
Ev: When I returned, I turned comments off on my blog. I'd thought that engaging with my readers was why my e-books were selling -- this was obviously wrong, because they were selling without me engaging. So, I stopped reacting/responding as much as I had before -- this was a huge change in my life.
I no longer felt obligated to check into my blog every 15 minutes or so during the day. This freed me up to explore my world, and focus on my craft (which is writing.)
Turning off comments freed up around 15-20 hours a week for deeper work.
When I got back, my girlfriend and I broke up. I moved to a new place in Oakland (the loft that was featured on CBS Evening News), and later moved to San Francisco. I enrolled in Yoga to the People's teacher training program, which led to a redirect in my work -- as I began to look deeper at myself in the coming months.
I began to approach my work with fresh eyes. 30 days off showed all the ways I'd slipped into assumption and habits with the work. My work began to shift after the digital sabbatical, leading towards writing Augmented Humanity, blanking the slate on Far Beyond The Stars, and eventually to starting to write The Letter.