4 Steps: Avoid People

Between cell phones, e-mail and social networking sites, it is next to impossible to be left alone for any reasonable amount of time these days, without deliberately setting out to do so. When you don't respond to calls, messages, wall posts or other activity right away, people get the impression you're blowing them off, leading to unnecessary complications and explanations that only waste more precious time.
Perhaps you've got a thesis to work on or an office project, or maybe you just need a break or you've got your dwindling personal budget in mind. Whatever the case, what follows is a guide on avoiding your entire social circle for a limited amount of time to take care of whatever you need to take care of, one that allows you to put all your concentration on the task at hand without worrying about alienating your friends. We're proposing these four steps with a view toward not burning bridges (after all, you’ll want to hang out again afterward).
To that end, we present 4 steps on how to avoid people for a short, unspecified amount of time -- without causing much of a stir in the overall scheme of your social life.

step 1--Declare your unavailability
Begin with the obvious by making a formal declaration of your unavailability. Do this by sending out a single group message or e-mail a day or so prior to the time that you intend to take off and avoid people.
This isn't something you see very often these days, so make sure you're very clear about your intentions: what you're doing and for how long you expect to be unavailable. You can include why you're doing it as well, although nothing requires you to do so. Either way, being clear about it all will prevent people from e-mailing you or contacting you trying to find out particulars. The last thing you need is to feel obligated to respond individually to 10 or 20 people, when your declaration should have been enough.
Sadly, you know some people are going to take offense to this. They'll get over it.

step 2--Set up auto responses
To further prevent people from trying to contact you, establish auto responses for non-essential e-mails through your e-mail account, and set your status accordingly on social networking applications. No need to go into any great detail here, just make it short and sweet, but not so brief that you alarm people who somehow manage to read a crisis into the very simple idea of avoiding people for an indeterminate length of time.
In short, auto responses should save you the trouble of responding to the people who can't take the hint.

step 3--Reduce your visibility
The third step to avoid people is to reduce your visibility, both online and offline.
Online, eliminate any viable way for people to tell that you're online. For example, don't allow yourself to be tempted by someone trying to IM you on the likes of Facebook -- switch that application to "offline" status so that no one can spot you online and hit you up for a long-winded conversation you really don't have the time for.
Offline, avoid going to the same Starbucks you're used to or to the same local lunch spot, or your standby bar for happy hour. As painful or difficult as this might be, it's essential to avoid getting trapped into seeing people and possibly accepting invitations to hang out or otherwise lose valuable time.

step 4--Formally schedule your re-emergence
The last step to take in avoiding people is letting your social circle know you're on your way back. Not only is it the polite thing to do after having made your earlier declaration, it also creates a deadline for yourself if you need it. To this end, before your time draws to a close book some appointments or make some plans with your buddies to show that you are back in the mix and ready to hang out. Don't forget to rescind the auto responses and change your status updates when the time comes.