I went with my mom and aunt to visit my aunt (mom’s best friend) and her sister in New Mexico. First, it is interesting all of the things we assume and take for granted as a frequent traveler (a note for another day!).

Next, we drove to Taos, New Mexico for two nights. It is an interesting mountain art town with one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the U.S. (the Pueblo). Although this Native American tribe of Puebloan people have members who live with modern amenities outside of the Pueblo, there are several families still living there without water and electricity.

On our way to the Pueblo, our phones went out because the cell tower went down. Since almost everyone used Verizon or services that went through Verizon, we were out of touch with the world.  And, service finally came back up (hotel included) the next day. It is amazing the number of items we use our cell phones to look up (symptoms of altitude sickness for one of my aunts, a decent place for lunch, directions to the Pueblo, a call to my mom’s other sister to see how a procedure went and a call to a client)! Odd timing perhaps that we were left on our own devices (except for my mom’s “old person phone” that my brother gave her which worked on T-mobile from time to time) as we visited an ancient pueblo. I had to text by clicking multiple times on numbers to try to reach my cousin and client. What a great story… you couldn’t plan this if you tried!

Have you thought about unplugging?

One Tip to Implement This Week:
Although I do not wish to lose technology again anytime soon, it certainly makes you think and prioritize who you are going to text (as it might take at least 20 times longer), what you need to know and how else you might find the answer and more. I barely recall when I first started working and would pull over to use a pay phone to return a call from my beeper to the plant about what to do about a scheduling issue. Can you imagine?!

Losing technology makes you think, observe and prioritize. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to prioritize how we spend our time anyway? At the airport in Albuquerque on the way home, I sat at the bar with my laptop (as it was the only place that had a plug), and the guy next to me was complaining about a couple who sat near us who apparently had been staring at their phones and not talking the entire time he was there. Have we forgotten how to talk? I can definitely say that our clients experience communication challenges from time to time. Actually, don’t we all? Perhaps we should practice more often!

Why not put technology aside for a few hours and observe and listen? You might experience an entirely different situation than you ever have before!