July 15, 2025

Embracing Travel With Less Tech

you really can survive without email on your phone!

Hello there! Happy Tuesday!

I’m back at home and HERE for two whole weeks, my friends. Besides some newsletter work and reading (of course), I’m teaching a second session of the online PD class I taught in June (paid), taking some other PD classes (paid), and putting in some of my extended contract hours in my library (paid) before leaving for another trip on the 28th. This is how I’m funding all the summer adventures, btw ~ I haven’t figured out how to have an “all play, zero work” lifestyle quite yet!

What I HAVE figured out though, is how to leave a lot of my technology behind when I’m traveling, how to live by my out-of-office message, and also … how to exist ALWAYS with no email on my phone.

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It started with a laptop.

I remember just a bit about a trip my husband and I took to New Orleans for a wedding back in … 2008 maybe? I had a new laptop and thought I was so very, very cool bringing it with me and setting it up in the hotel and WORKING while on the trip. Besides being so incredibly drunk that I fell off a stage and broke my foot while out on Bourbon Street (I’m thankful for my sobriety now!), that laptop is one of the only things I remember about the trip.

And then the phone.

I remember a beach vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama in 2017 with my whole family and a friend’s family, on which I spent massive amounts of time “working” on my bookstagram account, glued to my phone for hours and hours. I can’t with myself.

Over the years, though, I have slowly started divesting myself of work and technology when traveling, bits at a time.

What’s work? Well, to me, work includes my salaried profession as a school librarian and all of the facets of the job. It included my consultancy and liaison positions for the past year. Work also includes this newsletter (my favorite work!) as well as all of our typical home admin: bills and bank accounts and appointments and such.

Last year I was down to leaving the laptop at home and bringing my iPad with on most trips, just in case.

And now? This is the very first summer that I have been traveling with NO LAPTOP and NO iPAD. The exception to this was ALA in Philadelphia, which was a work trip, and where I had to prepare a report for my liaison position. Working on a work trip is okay - ha!

I still have my phone, though. However, I have focused very hard over the past few years to make it as functional and non-distracting as possible, especially when traveling.

ZERO social media. ZERO notifications. Except texts and calls from my husband, kids, and mom.

My home screen allows me to distract myself with only … reading! Woohooo! I used to grab my phone and scroll and scroll on news and social media, and now my only choices for short bits of phone time are the Kindle and Sora apps, both of which are a gift of reading time. WIN.

As for my second page of apps, well let’s just say they’re all very functional and it takes me forever to find something, so I usually don’t bother unless I actually have a task to complete. FRICTION IS THE POINT.

Eliminating Email from My Phone

This is the first year that I don’t have email on my phone. No email app at all. Not just no work accounts, but no email app. EVER.

Sure, I can log into Gmail for any of my accounts on my phone in the browser if I have to, but I seriously don’t do this unless it’s an ACTUAL necessity. I think only once in the past six months?

To create additional friction on all online activity, I have also deleted the Chrome app off my phone and I have purposely have no passwords saved in Safari, so it’s super annoying to have to use it!

Email has always been a massive distraction for me, and taking it off my phone entirely has made a major difference in my life.

How do I exist without email on my phone?

Especially while traveling? Well, it’s really all about preparation. And utilizing OTHER apps - ha!

I used to use my email as a filing cabinet for all of my travel confirmations, shopping receipts, and such. Now I need to think about what I need ahead of time, and get that information stored elsewhere before I leave the house.

I typically resort to screenshots and my Notes app, as well as utilizing the Kayak app to house all trip information, and airline apps for flights.

Did you know if you use Kayak, you can email your flight and hotel accommodations to trips@kayak.com to have them all housed in the same place that is NOT your email inbox? I love this, and no, I am not an affiliate. Just love Kayak!

I make sure I download and log into every app I can think of needing ahead of time so I can take care of all of the asinine email code verifications that are required for logging into EVERYTHING.

I physically print out some confirmations if I’m going somewhere without good reception or if I’m worried I won’t be able to charge my phone.

I wait until I get home again to read newsletters and other communications that are wonderful, but not necessary when I’m out and about.

For my salaried position in which email is an actual job expectation, I set a hard and fast OoO message when I’m on vacation that is clear and kind and includes important information that people might be emailing me about, like this one:

Or this one, for my newsletter account:

I honestly feel so very relieved when I turn a message like this on, as it means I’m not letting anyone down by leaving them waiting for a response. Drawing hard boundaries like this makes it much easier to NOT WORK and NOT CHECK EMAIL while on vacation or after contract time. Even if I did check my work email, I can’t respond after people got this OoO message - I’d look like a liar!

If you just read all of that and came up with a million reasons why eliminating email from your phone or traveling without a laptop would NEVER work for you, that’s cool too. YOU DO YOU.

But… if you’re interested in living with a bit less tech and email in your life, especially while traveling, maybe at least turn off all notifications on your phone, remove the email app from your home screen, and set specific times and time limits for checking in?

Want more?

Check out this 2018 article on creating a distraction-free phone ~ this problem has been around for a hot minute!

Go even more hardcore than me, and try traveling with no phone! (NYT gift link)

Finally, in full disclosure: the reason I was still able to keep this newsletter going while traveling with not much tech was because of my front-loading BEFORE traveling. I invested quite a bit of time to prepare and schedule content so that I could be untethered during my time(s) away. So, so worth it.

Thanks for stopping by!