This year, I had some downtime before my Australia tour and spent a week or so in Phuket, Thailand. As a confessed workaholic, sometimes it's good to unplug and detach and honestly, the scenery, the weather and the people truly made this an incredible place for me to recharge.

In barely one generation, we've moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them - often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug.

The nice thing about anger is that, as an emotion, it's strong enough to unplug me from the comedian's mind for a minute and just be a frustrated member of the citizenry.

If the point of an activity is to be relaxing, changing that point to money isn't a great idea. Then you have to show up for it differently, and that can take the fun out of it, absolutely. I'm a big fan of turning your hobbies into businesses, but not if it's the hobby you do to relax and unplug.

I have always heard that you need to give yourself a long time to unplug when you do a sabbatical. I unplugged so fast I was a little concerned that I was losing brain capacity.

In this media-drenched, multitasking, always-on age, many of us have forgotten how to unplug and immerse ourselves completely in the moment. We have forgotten how to slow down. Not surprisingly, this fast-forward culture is taking a toll on everything from our diet and health to our work and the environment.

I try to make a point in my life to leave the cell phone in the car sometimes, to try to unplug as much as possible.

Especially when you have a lot going on, you must find a way to unplug and focus on yourself.

When I'm with my parents, that's the place I can unplug. That's the place I can shut down and not worry about work or what's going on. I go home and hang out with them. I sleep more there than any place else ever.

I cannot get myself interested in video games. I've been given video game players and they just sit there connected to my TVs gathering dust until eventually I unplug them so I can put in another special-region DVD player.

I have those moments with my kids and family where we try to unplug and just be in the moment. We put everything else to the side and just be there with our family.

Music can be useful during training to help get you psyched, and I still listen to music on easy climbs or in the gym. But during cutting-edge solos or really hard climbs, I unplug. There shouldn't be a need for extra motivation on big days, be it music or anything else. It should come from within.

For me, if I didn't have reading I'd go absolutely crazy. It really helps me to unplug from the whole world, and keep my sanity, and be able to fill my time with something other than technology.

Yoga, working out, go to class, group settings where you can't be on your phone, that's a great way to unplug!

I'm desperately trying to unplug. The last thing I want is a watch that connects to my phone which connects to my iPad that connects to my computer that airplays to my TV.

I remember when TiVO first came out I was all about TiVo. I came home and that thing was frozen, and I thought 'This is awful. This is the end of the world'. Then I unplugged it, and I plugged it back in, and still frozen. It was paralyzing. I called them. They said, 'Just unplug it longer.' Fixed. But it also taught me I'm an addict.

The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug.

I am going to spend more time face-to-face with my friends and family. I am going to unplug more.

I have a new joke today. Martha Stewart's on suicide watch. They had to unplug all of her ovens.

I find it refreshing to unplug from it for a while. You kind of forget how deeply you get embedded in it.