You are a slave to your cell-phone. Your mobile is IN CONTROL of you.
In the war of man against machine, man is LOSING.
Your phone does a lot more than just ring when somebody wants to talk to you, right? It beeps when you get a message, it hums when somebody tweets you, it buzzes when you get an email, it gives you a back rub when your tired and fixes you a bloody mary when you’ve got a sore head.
STOP! TURN OFF YOUR MOBILE PHONE.
Before switching your phone off, this is your weekend:
- Get up, beautiful day, decide to go to the park, but first check your emails in bed. BAD IDEA. Long, dirty missive from your boss about your Monday morning deadline.
- Decide you’ll spend the whole day working to appease your employer, who is on the golf course not thinking about you even for a minute.
- Can’t get any work done because your husband calls you every two minutes to help with his supermarket buying decisions.
- Evening comes quickly. Treat yourself to a film and a bottle of wine, and just as you sit down your mother calls “for a chat” and you’re still on the phone half an hour later. Your pizza’s gone cold and your Chablis has gotten warm.
- You get another email from your boss. Can’t sleep for worry.
After switching your phone off, this is your weekend:
- Wake up Saturday, beautiful day, eat breakfast, go to the park, meet friends for lunch, play six rounds of mini-golf and finish it off with lobster and stout.
- Sunday, repeat.
- Monday, get into the office, deal with emails. Deadline wasn’t really a deadline.
“BUT”, I hear you cry. “BUT if I want to enjoy my weekend, I need my friends to be able to get in touch with me, right?”
WRONG
Remember ten years ago, before anybody had a mobile phone? Remember how you used to have fun, and meet friends for lunch, and get stuff done? Well:
IT’S STILL POSSIBLE.
If anything, we were more organized and more efficient when last minute changes of plan and calls for information weren’t possible.
DESTRESS – TURN YOUR PHONE OFF THIS WEEKEND.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Another great post! I tell people this all the time, although I’ve never suggested it for an entire weekend. A buddy of mine and I have electronic communication blackout times. When I’m at the gym my phone is turned off and in a locker. When I visit my parents, my phone is turned off (the latter partly because it’s just rude to take calls while in someone else’s house).
Some people at the gym think it’s crazy. “I have business calls” they’ll say. I’m like, I’m sure you do, and that business will still be there an hour later. There’s no way someone will only work with you if you answer the phone RIGHT NOW!
Furthering my cell phone pet peeve are the people who live in their phones while at a bar, or other public places where you can meet people. I’ve told my buddy countless times, when you’re playing on your iPhone you’re NOT talking to the hot girl right next to you.
Even when it’s on we don’t HAVE to answer it.
Again, GREAT post!
Thanks Adam – glad you enjoyed it.
And spot on about the bar! Put it away for God’s sake!
There’s an awesome little pub in Soho, London, called the French House. They have a no phone policy. They don’t block your signal or anything, they just scream at you if you use it.
First, I LOVE the French House.
Second, I was thinking “how would I contact my friends” and then you said how.
Third, I travelled the world sans mobile and it was all “meet me in three weeks on Koh San road” and you’d still find each other. Went back in 2005 and everyone was texting! In Laos! Mental.
totally true in some ways. I’m a college student living in an apartment. My cell phone is my only phone (no landline). However, I could just leave my cell at home one day or something like that. Plus, sometimes I worry that if I were to fall and get hurt or something (My apartment is 2 stories and going down stairs when you’ve just woken up is not the safest but oftentimes a neccessity
) and my phone was upstairs and no one expected me to answer my phone it might take too long for them to realize that I’m not in communication because I can’t. (yes, somewhat unrealistice, but i knew someone that experienced something similar. She was in her dorm room on the phone with her mom when a heart condition she didn’t know she had reared it’s ugly head and she lost consciousness. Her mom called 911. Her roommates may or may not have noticed anything until it was far too late. She ended up passing away in the hospital, but without her mom calling 911 she likely never would have made it to the hospital and would have been dead for hours perhaps before her roommates went into her room.)
So anyway, I know this is kinda unlikely that anything similar would happen to me, but I can’t get it out of my head. However, recently I went home for the weekend and ended up leaving my phone charger there Sunday, It took until Tuesday afternoon to mail it so it didn’t show up until Thursday. My phone battery is at the point where it needs to be charged every other night, which would have been Sunday night. I managed to keep it off most of the time so I did get that relief of only checking my messages and texts occasionally. Plus I’m not a high-profile business person and I don’t have the internet on my phone so the only things I can do are call, text, and text in my facebook status (but I don’t get texts about the comments. I just wanted to be able to share funny kid quotes and other such things before i forgot them.)
Ok, wow, long comment! I do that though. Oh, and awesome article! So true! I’ve just stumbled on your blog so now I’m looking at all the fun blogs that you manage to hit on some hard truths but do it in a way that has everyone laughing and still taking you serious.