During the whole time I ran CEA:
- I never had Slack or work email on my phone.
- About 4 times a year, I took week-long holidays where I wouldn't check Slack/email (but where people could Whatsapp/phone if there was anything urgent, which they did on average ~1 times/week).
- Since leaving, I’ve also started trying to take ~20m breaks every two hours, to meditate or read, and let my brain recover from intense work.
Some benefits of this:
- Rest is good for your work: you will have more energy the next day, and you might come back with a new perspective on an important problem.
- You’re not missing out: I think most things will not be urgent to respond to in less than 12 hours or whatever. You can ask people to call you if something actually urgent comes up.
- Additionally, it models behaviour that's more likely to be sustainable for the team, and allows them to get the benefits of breaks too.