According to a recent post on NewYorkTimes.com, 75 percent of Millennial-aged American respondents to a survey sponsored by the Wi-Fi Alliance said that a week without Wi-Fi would leave them grumpier than a week without coffee or tea.
I read the article and didn’t give it much thought. After all, when would anyone actually have to live without wi-fi, coffee or tea?
Well.
Late Sunday evening, I landed in London after a long flight across the Atlantic Ocean. About three seconds later, I did what I always do when my plane touches down on the runway: I turned on my BlackBerry to check messages.
Although I had called my wireless provider before I left the U.S. to make sure my phone, email and texting capabilities would work overseas, my BlackBerry did not get the memo. “No Signal” was all it said, no matter how many buttons I pressed, no matter how many settings I adjusted, no matter how many times I turned it on and off and removed the battery.
The next day I tried everything to get it working — hotel concierge, mobile phone store, email to customer support, paying a fortune to actually call customer support from London — but my BlackBerry still would not work. So I resigned myself to four days without constant connection. Here is what happened:
1. I paid more attention to my surroundings. During some down time on my business trip, I took a two-hour double-decker bus tour of London. It was fabulous: Big Ben, London Bridge, Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace and all amazing stops in between. I’m embarrassed to say, though, how many times I felt myself instinctively reaching into my bag to check my BlackBerry for messages.
Each time I realized I didn’t have it, I was forced to notice more of the incredible architecture all around me, discern more of the marks from where bombs fell in World War II and take in more of the historical facts the tour guide was sharing. I know this sounds incredibly cliché, but I really did digest more of my surroundings because I was totally present and not splitting my attention between London and a tiny screen.
2. I missed sharing. All of that said, I also felt some disappointment that I couldn’t immediately share the experience with everyone back home. I’ve become so accustomed to tweeting, Facebooking and sharing on LinkedIn that I kept thinking about what I wanted to tell various people about various things — personal and professional — that happened on my trip. I wish I could share all of that with you now, but I forgot most of it. Social media really has become an indispensable and important part of my personal and professional life.
3. I checked email more efficiently. This is a well-known email management strategy, and one that I have trouble implementing when I’m in my own office. One of the most effective ways to manage email is to check it in batches a few times a day. Because I was out and about in London without my BlackBerry, the only way I could check email was in batches when I returned back to my hotel once or twice a day and in the evenings. I found that I zipped through messages pretty quickly because I answered them in bulk rather than in a trickle throughout the day. If you struggle with email management, give this batching tactic a shot. I’m going to try to stick with it when I get back to my desk.
4. I found alternatives. Instead of calling my husband from my BlackBerry as I usually do when I’m traveling, we used Skype and our webcams to video chat from across the ocean. It was great and we’re planning to do that every time we travel. Instead of calling in to a webinar I was teaching, I tried out the VoIP system on the webinar system and it worked just as well — and was totally free. And, instead of burying my head in my BlackBerry to find directions around town, I asked people for directions and, in the process, had some really nice conversations and got some great recommendations for additional places to see and things to do.
Will I go back to using my BlackBerry when I get home from London? Absolutely. But I’m surprised how glad I am that I had the experience of living without it. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, disconnected or in a rut, I recommend shutting off your mobile device for a few days and see what you learn. The results may surprise you.
