Vacation 2.0

So you’re at the beach, in the mountains, in the country – it’s peaceful. You feel relaxed. The wind in your hair, the sun in your face, the overall boredom. Boring. It’s all nice of course, but you can’t seem to shake the feeling that you have better things to do. The project you left at the office does seem somewhat more interesting… The sun, the sweat, the overall frustrations of a creative workaholic. For me, it was this article. Okay, not this exact one, but one I have promised Cyan I’d write. Well – I screwed up. There, I said it. I promised something and didn’t do it. The shame.

Let’s analyze the “issue”, lets analyze vacations. Widget, widget, widget, vacation. Most people would say it’s a time when they unwind, take the time to be with friends and family, basically – have fun. That’s ok. Worker 2.0 doesn’t work that way. He may crank virtual widgets, be it in a text, code or pixel manner, but the concept of a vacation doesn’t work for him anymore.

We can call ourselves geeks, web workers… It truly doesn’t matter. What matters is that we have serious issues. Vacations are one of them. We get bored, we want to check e-mail, we want to surf the Net. Laptops and mobiles don’t stay at home, but in our pockets. The problem with the concept of a classic vacation is that for a lot of us – they are boring after some time. We need a challenge. Tim Ferris calls for the death of vacations and outlines a concept of mini-retirements. The idea is not to wait for retirement to explore the world, but to do that in six month chunks. What Tim says makes sense, and yes, sometimes we just need to disconnect to connect once again. Unfortunately, most of us won’t end up changing our lifestyle in that way, but the idea of taking time off on a recurring basis is something we all need to do.

Work is not a Dirty Word
The concept I call Vacation 2.0 is basically a vacation survival kit for the creative geek. Yes, you in the back. The designer, the programmer, the writer. You know that after a week or two you just want to get something done. Well, David Allen can’t help you now. It doesn’t have to be six months, it can be six days, but do it regularly. Sometimes though, we end up wanting to do work on vacation. That’s ok. As long as it isn’t business. Forget billable hours and forget working for clients. Deadlines won’t work in your favor while you’re trying to relax. Believe me, it didn’t work for me. The problem we face when taking work to the “beach” is that we do want to work on something, but we don’t want the stress of doing it. It won’t make you happy, and it sure won’t make your clients, editors or partners happy.
While all the fuss then? Why don’t I just forget everything? Well – boredom. I’m a writer, a designer. I need to keep my hands, or in this case, my fingers – busy. In order to keep your creative sanity you need to work on your…

Skills and Passions
Read a book, learn something new. If you’re a coder, why not whip up some little application that you don’t need, but want to make. Writer? Write a novel, a short story. Designer? Try a new technique, and by that, I mean analog. Sketch, plan, dream. You know you always whine about not having enough time to try a new programming language or design a wallpaper. Well guess what – take a little time and try. Actually, it will make you happy. We all rest both our mind and body in different ways. You don’t need to eliminate what you love to do (writing, design,…), just eliminate the stress associated with it.

Back to Basics
As well as creative output, our many input channels like e-mail or RSS can sometimes seem to take all our time. Well, as with creativity, implement those lifehacks you’ve been reading about. Check e-mail once a day or once a week. Don’t watch TV, and keep the RSS, but check them sparingly. As for e-mail, setup that snazzy auto responder so people know not to bother you. Vacation 2.0 is about staying on top of your game and enjoying it. Eliminate the stress. Stay creative. Most of all, enjoy yourself.

Unlike the rest of the team, Ivan Brezak Brkan still has to balance his freelance interface design and new media writing/copywriting career with a busy university life. New media and blogs are his outlets of choice – and “new” marketing his passion. Find out more about Ivan at IvanBrezakBrkan.com.

Tags: Balance

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