Learning to rest

It’s that time of year again everyone’s back from vacation, school has started again and work is picking up. I was watching this random video about how plants handle winter and how they go dormant for months. It got me thinking about how bad I am at actually resting.

I barely take time off. When I do, it’s usually to help someone move or deal with appointments. The few vacation days I take? I spend them reorganizing my workspace or learning some new framework that might be useful. Last time I planned a weekend trip, I did all the planning weeks ahead. Then worked late the first night of the trip anyway.

Even my free weekends aren’t free. Last one I had, I spent the whole time setting up a better development environment.

I keep telling myself this is normal. Everyone in tech is always doing something learning the next thing. If you’re not moving forward you’re falling behind… right?

But I’m starting to think that’s wrong. Maybe I actually need to just stop doing things for a while.

So this comming time I want to try something actually stop. No side projects disguised as relaxation. No “productive” weekends just take my time and stop for a while.

Writing that down feels weird. Which probably means I need it.