I woke up to find that Be Softer was having technical difficulties. As in no files appearing. Eeek!

I spent a good hour attempting to figure out what could be wrong. I read ominous reports online that there had been “attacks” on WordPress blogs, so I backed up all my files, downloaded a new version of the software and uploaded to a test site.

And still nothing.

Which meant that the software wasn’t the problem. I wrote my hosting services and at that point realized there was nothing else I could do. I could stare (or yell) at the computer. I could continue my early-morning mini-meltdown. I could check my email every 30 seconds to see if the help desk had responded.

Or I could step away for a little while and move on to another project.

So that’s what I did. Whipped up an article, got it off to the publisher, and then went to check for any updates. The help desk had written in the meantime to say the problem had been resolved, approximately 2 hours after I first noticed it.

I only wish I’d stepped away for a couple of hours as my first course of action to see if the problem resolved itself without effort on my part. Would have saved myself some hassle and hair pulling!

I find this often to be the case. Walking away from a puzzle often helps me solve it. And when it comes to email or web, we definitely don’t have to respond to everything immediately. People who write a panicked message almost always follow it up with a “never mind” a few hours later.  Messages sent to a group often don’t need my input – someone usually makes my point for me, or close enough. Emails put in my “deal with later” folder magically become irrelevant or resolve themselves. I’ve heard stories of executives who dump all their non-urgent mail in a drawer and pull it out a few weeks later to see what still needs action. If it turns out you were wrong and it is urgent, someone will get back to you.

I know this sounds downright irresponsible and certainly no way for an over-achiever to act! And yes, that’s my not-so-hidden agenda: less over-achieving (”over” implies more than you need to be doing, right?), more just be-ing. Maybe we can act less like fire fighters screaming to a fire and more like, I don’t know, mattress testers…

Have a soft rest of  your week!

p.s. How’d you do with your e-mail vacation?

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1. Try This: email vacation