Banned vacation, how does it feel?

// ?eská verze dole pod anglickou //

One week vacation without Keboola, how does it feel?

In one word - great. It actually started on Tuesday evening and ended on Sunday, but fortunately we've spent almost all of the vacation on a polar day so there was no excessive amount of sleep. It was a completely opposite experience than the last vacation where I attended stand-ups early in the morning, tackled the urgent things from my phone and took care of the rest in the evening.

How did the "detox" work out?

Padák deactivated my slack account and we actually decided not to deactivate my gmail account, and I just disabled all notifications on my phone. It worked like a charm.

Was it good?

Absolutely. All the distractions in the phone are a nightmare, hell, not a good friend. ;) Everyone knows that, been there, done that, one unlocks the phone for a minute to reply in slack and in another minute you're commenting in jira, then one email, twitter and in an hour and a half you find yourself liking instastories. Or the other way around you just post something on insta and end up replying to emails. So blocking slack and mail in the phone turns it to just a camera, map, translator and contactless payment thingy. Awesome. It worked very well for me and I've spent way less time on the phone, yeah, I've posted some absurd things to social media, but no big deal. And yes, out of inertia I've checked the post here on linked in waiting for a flame war to begin ;)

Was it good?

Sure, I’d say my scatterbrain level got about 80% lower. My educated guess would be that scatterbrain level in general is somehow related to information overload. ;) And enjoying free time without distraction is always good.

What else?

Just as I’ve turned myself to do not disturb mode, sitting in a café unknown number is calling me, it’s a police officer informing me about someone who admitted to hit my car parked on the street back home. I kindly interrupted him and asked if we can deal with it when I get back. Polar day is cool, same time zone, but daylight 24 hours a day, way more cool than expected. It may be a bit of a shock for body & mind, but I love it, midnight at Angry Birds playground or last walk in the woods at 10.30 pm. Daytime elastically expands and more fun & memories fit in it.

What’s the drawback?

Opening empty slack after return is far better than 100+ mentions, threads and unread messages. I’ve lost all my subscribed channels and had to join them again, but I see it as an opportunity for a cleanup. I got severely tired on the first day back, probably all the borrowed time struck back. Yeah, this vacationwas too short to forget any of my passwords. And I totally dumped writing a blog post about data mesh, as there was always the daylight and something to do.

Would you suggest dropping work completely on a vacation?

100%. Especially if the vacation is short it should be intensive and do-not-disturb helps with intensity a lot. Dropping social networks and other bullshit is also fine. I used only google photos, family whatsapp chat, swarm (more like a private diary) and from time to time instastory.

Any lessons learned? Or is it just over?

I have to find time to set up all my notifications on all devices. Discover how to make this dynamic depending on weekday/daytime etc. Notifications are a good servant but a very bad master.

* * *

Jakej byl tejden bez Kebooly?

Jedním slovem - skvělej. A trochu zkrácenej, za?al a? v útery ve?er a skon?il v neděli, na?těstí probíhal p?evá?ně v polárním dni, tak?e nějaky p?ehnany spaní se nekonalo a ?asu bylo najednou víc.

Jak detox probíhal?

Slack mi padák bloknul, zablokování google accountu jsme nakonec p?esko?ili a jen jsem si vyndal gmail z telefonu, bohatě sta?ilo.

Bylo to k ně?emu?

Rozhodně. Notifikace v telefonu jsou toti? peklo. ;) Ka?dej to zná, odemkne? telefon na minutu kv?li slacku a ne? se naděje?, komentuje? něco v ji?e, pak je?tě mail, twitter a nakonec o hodinu a p?l později olajkuje? storí?ka. Tak?e blocknutej slack a neexistující mail z telefonu udělaj fo?ák, mapu a p?eklada?. Na mě to zafungovalo a strávil jsem na telefonu minimum ?asu, na socky jsem postnul jen pár absurdit. Chvilku jsem je?tě ?ekoval, jestli se něco zajímavyho nerozpoutalo u myho linked-in postu o dovoleny a pak ?lus.

A bylo to k ně?emu?

Jasně, ?ekl bych, ?e level mojí roztr?itosti klesl o 80%, jestli ona nakonec nesouvisí s p?ehlcením informacema.. A u?ívat si v klidu dovolenou je prostě super.

A co jinak?

Jak jsem se p?epnul do re?imu neru?it, jsme hned první den v kavárně a volá mi cizí ?íslo, policie ?R, někdo mi naboural zaporkovany auto a p?iznal se. Poděkoval jsem a poprosil je, a? se ozvou, a? se vrátím, ?e te? to ?e?it nebudu. Polární den je skvělá věc, stejná ?asová zóna, ale v noci světlo jak odpoledne. Tro?ku asi ?ok pro tělo, ale mě se to moc líbilo, p?lno?ní dětské h?i?tě na motivy Angry Birds nebo poslední procházka lesem v cca p?l jedenácty, hezky to natáhne dny a vejde se do nich víc zá?itk?.

Co je na tom blby?

Je skvěly otev?ít po dovoleny slack a nemít tam 100+ mention?, thread? a nep?e?tenejch zpráv. Kanály ve slacku, jo, ze v?ech mě to odhlásilo, ale aspoň jsem se joinnul jen do těch, co opravdu pot?ebuju, o?ista. Po návratu celkem solidní únava, asi ty prota?eny dny a dal?í ?ok, tentokrát z tmy. ;) Bylo to moc krátky na to, abych zapomněl heslo do notebooku. úplně jsem se vyka?lal na psaní blogu o data meshi, nějak mi na to nezbyl ?as, jak bylo po?ád světlo.

Doporu?il bys offline dovolenou?

Stopro, kdy? u? je dovolená krátká, měla by bejt intenzivní a tohle intenzitě opravdu hodně pom??e. Vyka?lat se na sociální sítě a podobny blbosti je taky fajn. Já jel vlastně jen google fotky, rodinej chat ve whatsappu, swarm, kterej beru jako kroniku a skoro nikdo tam není a sem tam nějaky storí?ko.

Co sis z toho odnesl, kon?í to s koncem dovoleny?

Musím kone?ně najít ?as a vybrat si, jaky notifikace chci na kterejch za?ízeních dostávat, ideálně aby se to měnilo i podle denní doby a dny v tydnu. Notifikace jsou dobrej sluha, ale zlej pán.