[byte 3] do something real

Sometimes I need to remind myself to do something real. Sitting in front of a computer, especially when working from home, can really mess with my perception. I think anyone who works from home can relate. I’m privileged now in that I can have a separate work office from my gaming area, but still, existing in the same space without a change of scenery is draining.

When working in tech, there is nothing physically tangible that I can see from all those hours spent developing systems. Yes, you can fix a bug and see the error count go down or see a reduction in support requests— but you can’t touch that.

I found the things that help me disconnect and reset are to find a physical hobbies unrelated to tech. Some people pick up woodworking. For me, gardening and bread making scratch that itch.

Gardening is something my family has always been into. Growing up, I thought it was boring because it’s essentially a waiting game. Reflecting on that, I think the slowness is what I desire now. The world moves so fast now; having something that you physically cannot speed up helps to pace your thoughts. And let me tell you, store-bought fruits and vegetables are nowhere near as tasty as the ones that come from your garden.

As silly as it sounds, gardening is like real-life Stardew Valley. I can gamify my tasks, so I still feel like I’m moving forward.

Bread making is something I picked up this year, thanks to a carefully thought-out purchase (not an impulse buy, I swear!) of a bread machine. I’ve always been in love with the smell of freshly baked bread, and that was the sole motivation for me getting into this hobby. While there is a science/chemistry aspect to bread making, I enjoy the process of kneading dough and waiting for it to rise.

The process of waiting is something common between these two hobbies… maybe that’s what I’ve been missing.

The hardest thing for both of these hobbies was overcoming the analog nature of the work. My brain is always in constant optimization mode, but with these hobbies, I’ve been learning to let go of that perfectionism. There are no tests. No sprints. No complex conditional logic.

There’s a life outside of technology, remember that.