By now all of you must be enjoying the first day of the New Year. Some of you might be nursing a hangover. If you are – forget the coffee and instead drink three cold glasses of water and go for a run or a walk. As always I didn’t do anything much last night except pack!

Yes, you heard that right – pack! I am taking a month-long break from everything and going on a cardiac retreat. Vacations are anathema to me, mostly because I have the immigrant’s disease of “always be working.” I feel I am cheating the gods of opportunity if I am not working! But as my cardiologist says, there is no point in killing yourself. So I am taking his advice!

What also helps is that I have great friends. My partners at True Ventures and my team at GigaOM have insisted that I take this break or else no one will talk to me. Yikes! Anyway, let’s hope this become the cornerstone of my 2011 plan to bring about a work/life balance in my life. I made a lot of changes in the wake of my heart attack three years ago, but one thing I have been unable to do – slow down.

Perhaps it is time! So if you are sending me emails, text messages, tweets and leaving voice mails, well don’t bother. I am not paying any attention to those. I am leaving home with an iPad (as a eBook reader) and a Nokia X3-02. Even my Blackberry is staying at home. I will be back at the end of this month. Now don’t go and break the Internet while I am away.

More importantly, make sure 2011 is the year you stop to smell the ocean. I know I am!