No Computers Please

Happy Friday!

This week I believe in No Computers!

I have a new favourite day of the week. It's the day that I don't use my computer.

To be fair, it's only been two weeks now, but still. On my first day of No Computers I went for a long bike ride with friends, and then spent the evening reading and listening to the radio.

Last week I went for a long walk before eating my bodyweight in falafel and falling sound asleep. Tomorrow, I'm going to a day-long conference on the brain with my dad.

No wonder I look forward to these days!

But what's No Computers got to do with it? Couldn't I have a great day while still allowing access to those gleaming bits and bytes?

I suspect not, and my results over the last fortnight seem to concur. With my computer by my side, I find it hard to switch off - literally.

My humble Acer is a gateway poison: the one keystone habit that supports (what feels like) all the stress in my life.

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I am able to work at any time and from anywhere. Thanks to the wonders of late stage capitalism, it feels like I always should be.

Remove the keystone, however, and the arch comes tumbling down. Sorry, but I can't log on, I can't publish, I can't reply to your email. I am not available.

It's not like I'm bereft of technology on my No Computer days. I can use anything else from my panoply of devices:

• My smartphone for internet, email, messaging, music, radio, camera, podcasts, maps and yoga.

• My digital radio and MP3 player for auditory entertainment, and my speaker system for amplification.

• My Neo typewriter for distraction-free writing.

• My GPS watch for tracking my runs.

• My stop watch timer for meditation, saunas and HIIT exercise.

• My clock, thermometer and hygrometer for tuning in.

As you can see, it's not like I'm limited in what I could do. But the tool selection changes everything.

I really don't like responding to email on my phone, except really short replies, and I don't like browsing the web on my phone, except really simple, factual searches.

Without preventing me from addressing anything that's really urgent, the tool selection gently pushes me into doing other things, like getting out of the house, listening to music, or reading a book.

I can still do the type of work that really nourishes me, like writing and thinking, but I can't do work that's draining, or straight-up unproductive.

No Computers has been such a relief that I'd like to expand it to two days a week. Older readers might remember these kind of regular breaks – they used to be called 'weekends'.

I'd like to end by quoting from a long article I read this week that's consonant with these ideas: How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen.

We didn’t try to break the system, since that’s not how we’d been raised. We tried to win it.

I never thought the system was equitable. I knew it was winnable for only a small few. I just believed I could continue to optimize myself to become one of them.

Life has always been hard, but many millennials are unequipped to deal with the particular ways in which it’s become hard for us.

Switch off.

If you like this sort of thing, then you'll probably also like my back catalogue of over 500 posts, all found at davidcharles.info.

'SYLVA'

It is natural for a man to feel an aweful and religious terror when placed in the centre of a thick wood. John Evelyn (1664)

This week's walking involved 26km of pavements along the Bath-Bristol railway path.

It's a long slog, especially when you have packed an excess of camping chairs (one) and a deficiency of food (a single energy gel is not, I can reveal, lunch).

Thankfully, my steps were leavened by the prospect of Bristol's finest falafel, to be found at Baba Ganoush Kitchen.

Chef Shad is currently offering a six falafel salad box for the absurd price of £2.50. I asked him how long this bankrupting deal is going to be around.

Shad didn't reply as I expected - 'Until we go out of business' - but, 'Until the whole of Bristol knows about falafel.'

Then he handed me a complementary box of freshly rolled vine leaves.

I've published 5 books, including stories of hitch-hiking from London to Ben Nevis, and cycling 4,110 miles around Britain. Visit my tiny book shop.

The ebooks are Pay What You Want, so you choose the price tag. Can't say fairer than that.

Smashing Sundays for your ears

3 episodes of Smashing Sundays are well and truly up, including Foiled alumni David Oakes. This week: Alistair Green and his fabulous character sketches.

Edited by the superlative Dave Charms.

Right. I'm off to inspect the graffiti of Salisbury Cathedral - enjoy your weekend!

Much love,
- dc

CREDITS

David Charles wrote this newsletter. David is co-writer of BBC Radio sitcom Foiled, and also writes for The Bike Project, Elevate and Thighs of Steel. He can be found at davidcharles.info and no longer on Twitter.

WORD OF THE WEEK

ANADIPLOSIS

Reduplication; the beginning of a sentence, line, or clause with the concluding, or any prominent, word of the one preceding.

The love of wicked men converts to fear;
That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
To worthy danger and deserved death.

Richard II by William Shakespeare