Off The Grid – Greetings From Hawaii

Every once in a great while, I get a chance to go “off the grid” (also known as a “vacation”) for a short period of time. This year, I am in Hawaii for a friend’s wedding. It is during these not-often-enough breaks from the real world that I get a chance to reflect on the rapidity of change in our Industry and, more importantly, to see how many days I can go without using my laptop/cell phone. As far as locations go, there is no better place on earth than Hawaii to disconnect from reality. Being on “Hawaii time” means never having to be hurried, hassled, or stressed. This, of course, completely goes against my life in San Diego where every minute of every day is spent working on client campaigns or chasing down new business ideas and opportunities. Even my spare time is used to read up marketing books, blogs, and publications to stay current in this ever-changing Industry/profession I’ve chosen.  In Hawaii, however, time stands still. My only concern here, it seems, is when to go to the store and get some more POG juice. It is this sharp contrast in realities that led me to write this blog. Just to be clear though… I, of course, couldn’t go a single day here without plugging into the Internet. However, the difference is that the way I manage my time out here is extremely unusual. I can now reorganize and re-categorize hundreds of daily messages into new priorities (with only a handful of them truly being what I would call “important”). I can work periodically instead of at the manic pace I maintain back home. Perhaps it is because I know that when I wake up here in Hawaii, people on the East Coast are just about to finish their day. And perhaps that fact is what causes me to work much more efficiently and in much less time out here? Or maybe the sun is starting to affect my thinking? Whatever it is,  I hope to bring this new notion of time back to the mainland with me.

Tags: Marketing, online marketing

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 16:19 and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.