Out of office means out of office

Yesterday I deleted over 550 emails without reading them. This wasn’t an act of irresponsibility on my part but the result of being away the previous week. It took me two and a half hours to get through my inbox and by the end I had perhaps 50 emails remaining that needed some sort of attention.

It was actually quite cathartic to do it this way. My normal habit has been to check emails several times a day while on holiday, reply to some, forward others to my colleagues back in the office and delete the rest. It has meant returning to a fairly clear inbox but hasn't allowed me to fully switch off while away.

This time I heeded my team's request that I have a proper week off to rest, relax and recharge. Part of their 'demands' was that I should not email them...at all. I decided to give it a go.

I couldn't quite break the habit of checking emails but kept it to just once a day. I did however resist the urge to respond to any messages. I decided to let my out of office message do its job, to trust senders to do as I suggested and contact someone in the office instead. And they did.

I didn't spend ages on my week off deleting emails or getting involved in commenting on discussions being conducted via Outlook. I actually switched off.

Email has become a curse as much as it is a necessary tool. It's too easy to check your device each time you hear the beep of a new message arriving. So I simply left my iPad in another room at home while I got on with doing all I had planned for my week. I may have spent much of the week being Dad's taxi service to my 16 year old son but it was much more fun that fretting about whether the office would still function without me.

I have always had huge admiration and respect for my team, they are a class set of people. And they managed very well without me. The roof didn't fall in, the business didn't go under, the outputs didn't suffer. None of us is surplus to requirements but we are a well-functioning unit that pulls together all of the time. And we soak up the extra work when one of us needs a break. I have never had any doubt that I could take a holiday without worrying. But this was the first time I didn't keep looking over my shoulder to reassure myself all was well back at base. And it felt great.

My team appreciated my silence too. And if they are happy then so am I. My week of email cold turkey worked wonders. I didn't feel at all bothered that I wasn't in touch. In fact having set myself the challenge of not dealing with my emails for a whole week I rather enjoyed the effort and the result. And two and a half hours on my first day back wasn't so bad to clear out the unnecessary, the junk, the pointless 'CCs, and so on.

Out of office meant just that to the senders of emails and for me too, for a change. I'm going to do it more often when I'm away.