The power of total disconnection
When you receive an automatic email stating “I am out of office for holidays, please be patient until day X” and after that you receive a response before that "X" date, then you you’re in front of a classic XXI century executive. The common wisdom goes like this: "This person is taking his job seriously. This executive is relevant for the company or the topic could not wait, so he/she put his job first. Thus, you can respect him/her. You may want have him close as a colleague, client, partner, or whatever relation you may have”.
Nonetheless, there’s another, counter-intuitive interpretation to this old-fashion, globally accepted mantra: while this person is taking his job very seriously, he’s not taking his life with the same level of respect. His holidays -only 30 days in average over a total of 365 days in a year- are not being as valued as that email or that other urgent call. That little beach in Spain that you and your partner booked with months of anticipation may need to wait: a multi-million dollar contract or a new "critical" hire can’t. From this mantra lenses, there’s always something more important than your own life and your mental health.
Life is too short - embrace it
In his very famous article "The tail end", Tim Urban do not only highlights the shortness of life with outstanding graphs, but he also remind us of the opportunity costs of doing X (i.e.: one more full day job) instead of Y (i.e.: visiting your parents in your hometown) and its terrible effects on our own quality life. This image couldn’t be more graphic:
Every time you prioritize something else over your own free time, you’re delaying the most important pleasures of your short life in exchange for a few more professional achievements. The underlying problem with this is paramount: there's no free cancellation policy. No one is giving you back your life experiences. Time does only exist on the present moment, and as it’s been demonstrated in numerous scientific experiments, happiness isn’t a result of your professional achievements. On the contrary, it’s developed by enjoying the present moment vividly based on a strong chain of human relationships you build up during your entire life, such as close friends, partners, or family.
In the longest happiness study ever, Harvard Professor Robert Waldinger -conducted over 50 years and among 724 men- concluded that happy people "tend to realize how life is short and they are more likely to pay more attention on what makes them happy now".
5% OOO = 50% mental disconnection
While I’m writing this, I’m wearing my mask at my 39C Iberia seat back from a 1-month trip to Spain. The initial plan: remote work while traveling through northern Spain and Catalunya during the first two weeks, and 100% holidays while visiting the Balears Islands and the South for the other 15 days.
I hadn’t have taken vacations for a while, and there's always been an excuse for total disconnection during my last “vacations”, so I said to my self this time would be different: I will be totally off. 100% airplane mode. No calls, no emails, no slacks. Nothing else but enjoying the wonderful beaches, tapas and deep conversations with people that I love and surrounded by 30 celsius degrees.
A little clause on my personal contract with myself for total disconnection was, first, closing a very important deal before Friday 14th, exactly the day I would went completely offline. And as you may already discovered, plans almost always differs with reality. The only thing that matters is what you do with that. My decision was to remain 5% available only for this task, while completely off for everything else. Hoping that this deal ended shortly, I thought, I could be relaxed during the day without laptop, and send out a couple of emails, calls or whatsapps from the beach for this matter only. The rest would be 95% joy.
The cost was huge: even in the top of your mind, there’re no free lunches. My conclusion is that if you're 5% available, then the cost on your disconnection is huge: your mind will be 50% off, thinking and executing that deal, not 95% as I had imagined, due to the fact that although you’d be in Spain or New York and not in your typical job desk, your mind will continue to be in alert and "connected" to job notifications. All the rest is imaginary, self-made excuses you create for yourself and your people in order to feel better.
100% off = 120% mental disconnection
It was almost Friday and my first-holiday week was ending and I was in a small, paradisiacal cala in Menorca, the beautiful island emulating a mix between Venice old-town and Thailand beaches. My vacations ending was approaching faster than expected, and the deal was taking longer than expected. There's always something else that comes up. And thus it’s not about the context, but much more about how are you dealing with that: how are you controlling that short list of factors that are on your control versus life shit-happens-outside-variables. This time, I said to myself, I’d try another path. I’d prioritize life over job, trust my team delegating the remaining tasks for this deal to be closed in my absence, and eliminate my email app for 9 days in a row. I'll be totally off.
This time, I did exactly that.
The result was extraordinary amount of quality time that resulted in amazing, unforgettable conversations and experiences in side of the Mediterranean sea: that new cold Estrella de Galicia was not interrupted again. Those 2 emails per day disappeared from the agenda. The new commanding mindset relies on the fact that to be 100% disconnected you need to be 100% off -there are no shortcuts- and the outcome on your newly recharged mind will be even larger than that. If you don’t believe me, give it a try. The worst-case scenario will be a long week enjoying the only life you have got to enjoy.
You'll also see increases on your productivity levels
The following is also a very positive, although counter-intuitive outcome of total disconnection. In the same way your phone energy decreases with its use during the day or while opening several amount of apps simultaneously, when your brain is charged with a lot of stuff and with no breaks, its capacity also diminishes and your energy goes down. You may think, well, some caffeine never killed anyone and will put me up again, but that's a short-term solution: you'll not refresh your mind, just gain some good productive hours and then go down again. The profound solution is long rest, not short espressos.
You may need a smarter use of your time for being fully productive though. For example, Mihaly Csíkszentmihalyi's Flow theory explains that human productivity 'peak' occurs during specific time ranges of great focus where humans lose its perception of time passing away as they’re totally immerse on its task, rather than "feeling it". In the same line Stanford Professor John Pencavel shows that effort (i.e.: understood by total amount of work hours over a single task) is less relevant than a smart time allocation in regards to being more productive. That being said, your brain will be happy to receive a reset of notifications, emails and meetings in order to re-start its “software” and battery life. Whenever you’re back of a work detox, you’ll feel more focused, creative and renewed, with a larger impact on productivity --all while enjoying life at its best.
Yuval Noah Harari, a world-class renowned historian and intellectual, makes annual retreats for meditation and personal introspection. A linear theory on productivity would predict he would be less productive as he has many days “less” than other writers that doesn’t take as much vacations as he does. However, facts demonstrate the contrary to be true. His outcomes are unbelievably higher than other intellectuals, being able of writing bestseller over bestseller for years in a row, giving top conferences and providing insights on global affairs going from climate change to capitalism and COVID. Again, productivity doesn’t pairs effort. Quality time that allows space for creativity and innovation does it.
Avoid mental health issues and enjoy a healthy, balanced life
COVID has shown us all how vulnerable we could be on mental health issues when a pandemic like this comes up without previous notice.
The number of people suffering with anxiety, obesity, depression or burnout has peaked up as a consequence of coronavirus for obvious reasons, including the emotional cost of quarantine, job losses, economic depression, uncertainty, worse quality sleep, among others. Even more, job boundaries have been affected, too, and people have seen a rise on working hours as commuting over offices has diminished.
Burnout has also increased, too, and it's been very related with our minds being totally immersed in work issues for long periods without rest, a trend that has only been accelerated by other factors such as quarantine and absence of walks, air sports or natural light during the day, sleep deprivation, stress, abuse of drugs (such as caffeine, sleep pills or ibuprofene), emotional fatigue, bad nutrition, less human interaction, or broken love relationships, among others.
Being totally off for at least 7 days in a row diminishes anxiety levels as your mind shifts its perspective from work-focus to life-focus. Disconnection, therefore, is an incredibly powerful receipt for avoiding mental health issues during a pandemic context.
Walk the talk
In his last book "What you do is who you are", Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ben Horowitz talks a lot about walking the talk for establishing great cultures. As leaders, we also need to walk the talk for creating a wellness culture within our organizations, since leadership is determined by how you act, not how you talk. In fast growing companies, ambitious employees and managers will always want to give the “last mile”, working longer hours, during weekends and depriving themselves from vacations by seeing this as bridges towards growth inside the companies.
This trend is not only bullshit, but also very dangerous. No smart and kind leader will deprive its colleagues for enjoying their unique lives, and fulfilling them with hobbies, friends, family and travel. Thus, stating “take some rest” or “take 1 week off” as a respond to larger amount of stress to an employee, while not taking yourself serious rest during holidays, you'll be creating a toxic culture. In his impactful book No Rules Rules, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings states that leaders need to take larger vacations in order to instill a healthy culture: if you want resilient and ambitious employees to rest and be mentally healthier, you may need to be able to take longer holidays and disconnect during weekends as much as you can in order to create the emotional platform for others to take their space seriously. If you really believe in a mindful workplace, start with taking seriously your free time and show them you can be disconnected although there’re relevant and urgent things going on. Also, show them you can delegate and enjoy your life, and they’ll do the same with their own -and their team members- lives.
Putting it all together
Life is too short for not enjoying it. We work a lot —so why can’t we be able to connect with the most important things on our life for at least 1-2 weeks on a row, without distractions?
We’re not our job. We do like our jobs, yes, and a lot, but we do also love enjoying a wine surrounded by great friends, enjoying quality time with our family and making a road trip with our partner while listening to music loudly without thinking on work and being totally stressed out. Holidays, when taken seriously, need to be full-time, not part-time, in order to allow our mind to flow and rest in a relevant way. Partial holidays diminishes this a lot.
Furthermore, you’ll enjoy a balanced, healthier life, while avoiding mental health issues and increasing productivity. At the same time, you’ll be creating a positive wellness and conscious culture within your companies, with unbelievable consequences for your business.
The next time you put yourself an automatic OOO email response, believe it and walk the talk. Go ahead and practice it completely and without excuses.
Love yourself and enjoy your short, unique beautiful life you were fortunately gifted.