Voice Post: On Being "On Island"
August 16, 2007
I'm working too hard. Or playing too little. How about you? Is August slower, or faster than you'd like?
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Comments
Hi John. Many of us can relate to this feeling. I think it is important, however, to go completely off the grid - even if it is for 2 days and re-charge. You will feel better and the work will still be there when you are back. I would hope your blog readers can understand. Every body needs a little break once and awhile.
The last week of August I'll be on a different island (Long Beach Island, NJ), and I'm sure I'll feel as you have described. My strategy is to not work the weekend or Monday, Tuesday. Then resurface for the remainder of the week. 4 days is better than nothing!
Best,
Stephanie
It's funny you mention August.
I work in Europe for a major media company and this is the time of year where all the Southern European offices essentially shut down. Whereas my NY and London based co-workers are opening up the throttle and we're busier than ever.
I'm about to spend 2 weeks in the Nevada Desert without wifi, without mobile access and without a computer. If I'm really going to be "off-island", I need to be unplugged.
And not just from work but from the unrelenting social aspects of the network - email from that second tier of not-so-close friends that all the social networks have unearthed also have to be put on hold or scaled back if I'm really going to unwind my too-tight spring.
So John you are on Martha's Vineyard at the family complex and you can't get the "on island" feel?
You won't mind if I can't feel any sense of pity.
Perspective is your task in the coming week.
Enjoy.
August is a naturally nostalgic, wistful month. It is the countdown to school, to the peak and subsequent death of flora, and it is when most people race towards squeezing every last drop out of warm days and the availability of hugs from small hands during daylight hours (before the kids go back to school). No wonder we think existential thoughts, and envious of those who have let go completely. Then again, not many people we know are poised to have an autumn like you are. enjoy. You'll be in a cave in the south of france this time next year.
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