It’s 5768 now, and I’ve got some questions for all you freelance writers. What days are important enough to shut down the computer?

A lot of people are taking a couple of days off to go to the synagogue, but how many are actually not working at all on those days? And Ramadan falls during this time as well — the holiday practices don’t prohibit work, but Muslims are expected to focus on religion during this period. And with Christmas not so far away, it’s worth talking about for everyone.

In these days of mobile offices and constant work, I don’t feel comfortable taking even a full day away from my computer. At the very least, I’ll log on in the morning before I go to wherever I’m headed or in the evening after I get back. That doesn’t really work with the idea of the Sabbath of any variety, does it?* I haven’t figured out a way to reconcile it, personally. It’s an important issue, too, because there are all those notorious freelancers who tote a laptop along to the beach, family reunions or wherever else they’re headed for vacation. It seems like we’re all courting burnout here. I’d like to argue that we’re not — that we work every day, but for shorter times, and on projects we actual enjoy. But I don’t have much data on it either way.

*There’s an odd corollary to the religious aspect here: what about the appearance of work? I may not work on Shabbat, but I might have queued up an automatic update on my blog. It would appear that I’m still working. I may need a rabbi’s advice on this one, because it’s way out of my religious league.