Knowing When to Unplug

Ryan Baxter — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:38:00 -0700

If you’re a geek like me then this may sound familiar. Like you, I work the typical 8 hour work day at my “for pay” job. At home, my second job begins. Another 4-5 hours is consumed by one of my half dozen personal projects. An additional 2 hours is devoted to reading blogs and other online technical resources and about an hour is sacrificed for e-mail. When my wife and I have a commute that’s longer than 15 minutes, she drives so that I can read. Her only request for putting up with this is that I leave one night on the weekend for her. She’s a keeper.

Needless to say, I probably spend too much time online. Sustaining this lifestyle is not easy. I can keep this up for about three months before my body starts telling me to unplug. Some of my warning signs include:

Insomnia – How can I not be tired? It’s 4 AM? Am I the owner of a soap company?
Increased blood pressure.
Irritability – I don’t really notice this, but my wife tells me that I can be “grouchy”. She tends to use more colorful words.
Exhaustion.

In the past, I’d ignore the warnings and keep working until sooner or later I’d start falling asleep everywhere. I’d come home from work and sleep on the couch, or the middle of the living room floor, or even face down on my keyboard. It didn’t phase me much until my blood pressure started going up. Six months ago I began to notice a faint buzzing in my right ear. The buzzing grew louder and became persistent. It soon turned into a sort of rhythmic pulsing. I could hear my heart beating in my ear. Weird. At this point I decided it was time to take a break.

I don’t often take vacations. At former jobs, my vacation days would often accrue and I’d be forced to use them. I’d take a day off here and there, but I never had any planned vacations. A few weeks ago my wife and I spent a weekend with some friends. I had a great time and came home feeling recharged. My wife mentioned during the trip that she hadn’t seen me smile so much in years. You may have heard this before, but take a vacation. Get a life. Visit some friends. Just a couple of days is enough. Intentionally leave all mobile devices at home and don’t bring any programming books with you.

Try going to bed one hour earlier. I know this may be hard to do, but you can start in small increments and work your way up to an hour. Is that one hour before bed really that productive anyway? This has made me less ornery and more alert at 8 AM.

Get more exercise. Twice a week my wife and I teach a children’s Taekwondo class. I can tell you that lambda expressions are not at all on my mind when people are trying to kick me in the head. I sweat buckets in the Dojung. I often wake up feeling like I got a hit by a bus, but my mind is remarkably clear.

IANAD, but I can say that these things have worked for me.

crunchlife: Knowing When to Unplug

Knowing When to Unplug