Just recently, my wife and I spent a few wonderful days in Italy. As usual, I carried a handful of devices (smartphone, laptop, …) with me, eager to connect to WIFI spots (hotel, bars, beach, … ) engaging in the usual tasks of checking mail, twittering, posting on Facebook and so on.

It was only at our arrival in the hotel that I figured:

Why not leave all this stuff behind for the coming week and a take a digital vacation?

[Remark: I know, the name is a bit odd for it is actually a vacation or a break from digital things but I kind of liked the sound of it.]

In fact, that was a great decision to make and it dramatically improved the quality and the recreation factor of these holidays. While this should actually be a natural thing to do, I haven’t done that for years now. I actually cannot even remember the last time I stayed without Email and social media for longer than a few days let alone more than a week. But this time, I even stopped carrying around my cell phone during the day and left it in the hotel room. Cutting loose from all these cables (I like the metaphor) gave me the possibility of refocusing on things (both personal and work related) and pondering over various matters profoundly. Also, cutting out all kinds of distraction and solely and exclusively focusing on the one thing doing just now, is something which we do not of get a chance to very often. Recapitulating, I haven’t spent a holiday that relaxing for ages I guess.

Can I recommend it? Absolutely! Would I do it again? Hell yeah!

[Remark: To be completely honest, there was one device which I kept using throughout the vacation and that was my Amazon Kindle. While having used it only sporadically until then, I kind of “fell in love” with this device during these holidays. And while having shared it before with my wife, we immediately ordered a second one after having returned home, because for both of us the Kindle is currently our preferred reading device.]