Above the clouds at 14,000 feet

My friend Amber Naslund went on vacation last week (the first in more than a year and very well deserved) and, as she left, she wrote a blog post about how vacation can be digital, too. Read the post here.

As most of you know, I hiked Pike’s Peak on Saturday. It’s the second time I’ve hiked it, and before Saturday I remembered it as being the hardest thing I’d ever done (granted, the first hike was before I’d run three marathons, cycled numerous centuries, and been active enough to ride 250-300 miles every week). Regardless, it was important to me to chronicle the climb for my friends and family and I did that by taking pictures with my BlackBerry and updating Facebook. Can you imagine if I’d had to take a camera bigger than my phone, downloaded the photos, then updated Facebook or Flickr? Talk about a time suck while on vacation!

Then, as Erin and I were driving back to Denver from Colorado Springs, I got the Steve McNair news via Twitter. Because I don’t watch a lot of television as it is (let alone on vacation), I probably wouldn’t have heard about that until today had I cut myself off from my BlackBerry.

My point is, like Amber’s, going without my BlackBerry (even on vacation) means I’m truly cut off from the world. I’m writing a book and all of my notes are on my laptop. I’m providing case studies and content for a couple of other books and all of my pages are on my laptop. I’m reading a few books to provide quotes for the back covers. Those are all on my laptop. I use social networks for both business and pleasure, and have access to Twitter and Facebook on my BlackBerry.

I’ve learned that if I create an out of office reply that sets expectations on the business stuff, itallows me to still use technology on the personal side.  I agree, Amber, vacation can be digital too.

Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is the founder, CEO, and author of Spin Sucks, host of the Spin Sucks podcast, and author of Spin Sucks (the book). She is the creator of the PESO Model© and has crafted a certification for it in collaboration with USC Annenberg. She has run and grown an agency for the past 19 years. She is co-author of Marketing in the Round, co-host of Inside PR, and co-host of The Agency Leadership podcast.

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