This phone, people - it does everything my Blackberry did and then some! And that's all well and good (it has its annoying little quirks, too) except over the last week I've found myself checking my email constantly: read a few pages in a book, look at the phone; go to the bathroom, come back and look at the phone; cook dinner, pick up the phone three times during the process to check if there's any new mail. I'm not sure what it is about this little phone over the Blackberry (perhaps it's the wider screen or the ability to view HTML mails on there) but I'm feeling a bit tethered.

Part of the problem with my particular line of work (public relations) is that with the Internet and all these devices, everyone knows everything instantly. So PR folks have to be ready to jump on a developing story or answer a reporter's or client's question quickly. Being uber-connected is handy when reporters are covering news round-the-clock and bloggers are breaking news stories at all hours of the night. I'm no longer working directly with clients or reporters doing actual PR, but sometimes that aspect of the company's main line of business seeps over into my world. (Which is fine, on occasion. I understand the way the business works and I know this happens occasionally. No problem. I just don't want it to happen constantly.)

I'm all for being connected, and I find it handy to be so on occasion. Really. But that said, there's such a thing as being too connected and, after this week particularly, all of this connectedness starts to wear me down. So, upon reading Mr. Bittman's article, I started thinking about whether and how to take regular virtual breaks. And, most importantly, when I could do it. We talk about serenity and peace quite often in my recovery groups and it finally dawned on me that being overly connected - to email, to my job, to an instant wealth of entertainment - was making it too easy for me to just zone out, watch TV or read blogs and not think.

So what I decided is this: Saturdays have now been dubbed "Technology Free Days" in my world. And for me this means no cell phone, no computers, no televisions, no radios. The landline will be there, should I need it for an emergency, but otherwise it too is off-limits. If I need to know, do or find out something, I'm going to have to find some other way to get the information, or wait until Sunday.

In short, Saturdays are going to be peaceful and quiet. The experiment starts tomorrow; let's hope I survive!