After three weeks in my new role – communications and social media – in the marketing department at the real estate company at which I work, my head was spinning.
I couldn’t write enough lists quickly enough and I was even considering setting up an Excel spreadsheet to organize my lists alone. Every moment still I was thinking of ideas and questions I wanted to research and one blog post led to another. Then there was the challenge of spotting quality content amongst all the posts out there. I would get to the bottom of a post entitled 8 Creative Uses for Twitter You've Never Tried and be mildly entertained but none the wiser. Did I miss something?
I read an article in the Good Weekend section in the Age about the information overload happening around us and how we can’t seem to let a single thought pas by without jumping on to Google. A restaurant might come up in conversation and seconds later we are looking at their menu, getting directions from Google Maps to work out how long it would take us to drive there and struggling our way through the reviews trying to work out whether the reviewer is normal or not and whether we might think like them.
Brainache!
Feeling so strung out and preparing for a two-day hike at the weekend, I decided to leave my mobile phone at home for my trip. I scheduled all my Tweets and Facebook posts up until Monday lunchtime and figured as it was the Grand Final weekend most of Melbourne might have things other than real estate on their minds, and left my phone at home. From Friday midday to Sunday night I would have no access to my phone. Whoop!
The relief was instant. I looked out the window the entire journey down to Foster letting my thought process calm down and when the sun set my mind slowed even further. I can only liken the feeling to that of slowing your heart rate down after extreme exercise. I felt elated!
After 23 kilometres of fresh air whilst walking to the lighthouse at Wilsons Prom, getting battered by rain, hail and gale force gusts of wind, that night I slept so soundly after a night of conversation and eye contact, interspersed by periods of reading books! Yes, books!
The next morning I felt so inspired I wrote a little poem entitled Brainache, which served as my final catharsis, preparing me for a 28 kilometre (yes, we added in a detour on the way back!) walk back to the start point (the walk itself I will talk about in another post – it deserves one of its own).
Today I read an article pushing a product that will charge your phone using a thermoelectric process, so you can take it camping. Soon there will be no escape. Safety-wise, I was hiking with four others, all of whom had their phones so I guess if you are using your mobile for GPS or planning to do so in an emergency this FlameStower might come in handy.
I recommend grabbing the opportunity to separate from your phone when it comes your way. I returned to work rejuvenated, clear headed, ready to get stuck in, like a hamster on a tech-wheel!
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