Permission to Go Off Grid - Granted
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
Cell phones. They’re a technology so ubiquitous that it’s hard to imagine life without them. Most of us are never more than arm’s reach away from our devices, and that proximity makes it seem like we are always on, reachable, and available. If someone calls, texts, emails, or messages us, we are usually able to see that request for communication, and there is a strong pull to respond to each of those messages immediately. Because we can; our device is right there after all. But I think it’s important to remind ourselves that we don’t always HAVE to be reachable. It’s ok at times to go off the grid.
If you were born before 1990, you can probably remember what life was like before cell phones. It’s only been in the last 20-30 years that they’ve proliferated. Prior to that time, if you weren’t at home by your landline telephone, then you were almost entirely unreachable. If you were at a restaurant, the movies, driving in a car, there was no way for people to communicate with you. And you know what? The world kept spinning. People lived their lives. People were unreachable for a large portion of their lives, and they were fine.
Even now, there are people who purposely go off the grid and detach from their devices. There are people who hike the Appalachian Trail for months or walk across the country. People hike Mount Everest and trek the poles. They rent hotel rooms without Wi-Fi so they can concentrate and write novels. I’m not as extreme as these examples in going off the grid, but the models that they set give me permission to turn off my phone and put it away for times when I really want to be present and undistracted (like when I’m sharing a meal with someone, first thing in the morning and last thing at night, when I’m helping my son wake up in the morning and going to bed, when my child comes home from school, when I’m trying to work on a project that requires concentration). Just because it’s possible to respond right away to every request for communication we receive, doesn’t mean we have to respond right away. It’s ok to have times when we’re unavailable and respond to people during the timeframes that work best for us.
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Sincerely Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team