It’s okay to relax

Last modified February 17, 2025

I took a few days off to visit Copenhagen with my wife. We spent our days walking, sightseeing, snapping pictures, hunting for the best restaurants for our budget, and just having a good time.

In the evenings when we got back to the hotel I would grab my phone automatically and unlock it after a full day offline.

My mastodon app felt like a firehose of posts trying to rally me to their cause. My RSS feed felt like a flurry of bad news. My instant messaging was full of requests for attention.

And then it occurred to me.

If my morale always goes through the roof when I’m offline and drops as soon as I get back online, it’s not because the computer makes me miserable.

I make it do that to me.

It’s important to stay informed. It’s important to care. It’s important to know what’s happening in my field and beyond it. And it’s important to take action when needed.

But to go the distance I need to pick my fights, and I need to finally acknowledge it: Its okay to use the computer for fun. It’s okay not to be the first one to know.

It’s okay to relax.