Screenless Retreat

I’m joining the rest of the Praxis team this week for a three-day screenless retreat.  We’re spending tomorrow through Friday at a friend’s beach house in North Carolina without laptops, tablets, TV’s, or smartphones (except for emergencies).  I’ll have some books, an old fashioned pen and pad, and good company in a beautiful setting.

I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time, and I thought, what better way for the team to get some time together?  We’re spread out across the country and we all travel a lot, so when we’re in one place it’s usually for a work-related event or Praxis seminar where we’ve got a lot going.  We have a very anti-meeting culture and we all work on our own schedule, so even though we are in constant communication, we don’t get much time to just be together and let ideas flow.  Rather than a work-related retreat where we do some kind of brainstorming or team building or structured activity with specific goals, I wanted to just force us all to shut down reaction mode and take some time to contemplate or just relax.

To be honest, it’s going to be hard.  Just in preparing I’ve realized how much harder it will be than I thought.  The pre-scheduled blog posts (which will continue every day, per my commitment), the handling of communications and social media, and all the tasks to check off the list before going off the grid are a good reminder that I probably live a little too close to the moment.  My goal is to always have space for opportunities and activities and ideas that spring up unexpectedly, and if the daily work-flow is too high, that won’t happen.

I’m sure I’ll have some stuff to write about after our time away.  If I can remember it without my digital devices!

(We have a few amazing interns who will be monitoring the Praxis accounts and communications, so if you see us active on the web, just know we’re not cheating.)