Getting Things Done Double-time

Never underestimate the power of taking time off

One of the larger projects recently finished: replacement finials in some of the hardest soft maple I have ever carved. Photo by author.

Vacations are great. They are an opportunity to rest and reset. And sometimes the function exactly as expected.

Honestly, though, I can’t say that I knew exactly what to expect. When it comes to taking time off, I am way out of practice.

In the past, more times than not, I’ve brought along my computer. If you’ve an iMac, you may have discovered how well they nestle into the back seat of a car. Strap on the seatbelt and pack around it. It takes hardly any room. With it along, problems that comes along can be handled quickly.

So I thought hard about that. In the end, I left it in my home office and packed only the iPad. It’s the big one, with keypad and pencil and I figured I could take care of most emergencies with it. Mainly I planned to use it only for writing and email. Writing because it is my primary writing tool. Email because with several hundred coming in daily, I can’t afford to let it build up for a week or more.

In the end, I had a wonderful vacation on the beach. Got sunburned three times (always somewhere different), chowed on by scads of insects, and even pulled a muscle attempting to paddleboard. I opened the iPad only once every few days to clear the email and write and otherwise ignored most everything else.