Can you get away from email?

Over a weekend, on vacation, or just taking a day (or hour) off, can you get away from email?

This was the first vacation where I felt I had to check my work email hourly, and found it hard to take a mental and online break.

I was hoping for a second computer, one where I could just have fun and not have to see work email constantly.  Photo: No need to pity me, I had a great vacation, taking 4-5 swims in the lake on warm days. So many wildflowers on the path from the cabin to the lake, the flowers often would stick in my swim shoes.

How do you get offline breaks?  Can you get away from email? Tell us your thoughts.

Comments

[mailing list companies]

A good critique. I like the feature but agree with your comments. Also, maybe it's just me, but when I saw the new email comments bit on my blog, I completely misunderstood what it was and went looking for a setting to turn off having my email address show to the world.

[Terry Newman]

Just got back from a 10 day road trip in Oregon (got to visit Kassia!) I don't have a smart phone, did not take my computer, made sure that my staff was able to stand in for me when needed. It was hard the first couple days but after that I forgot all about emails, voice mails, facebook, etc. If I am going to do a good job while I'm at work, I need to be refreshed and explore my fun and creative side during vacation.