Have you tried any of them?

I managed to leave my desk at 5:30. Not too bad, really.

I had a shave to get rid of that ‘working at home feeling’, had a glass of something cold to drink – so far, so good – and slumped in the living room with my laptop. It seems my idea of having a quiet evening with a book amounts to reading a load of RSS feeds using my laptop (I’ve banished RSS feeds from the desktop machine I use for most of my writing in my crusade against time wasting distractions).

Yes, I’m an Internet addict. But I guess that’s not really news. There are millions of us out there who never seem to unplug – my wife’s one of them, incidentally. She has just come in from work, and after exchanging a little small talk, she has gone off to chat to her friends on MSN.

What gets me about using a computer in time off is that even when I’m just reading stuff – like other people’s blogs – I never seem to get into a relaxed state. A book, however, allows me switch off and recharge.

So, is the lack of relaxation at the machine simply because I’m still responding to some cues from my work environment, or is it something else? I wonder if it’s the ease of use, refined user interface and high resolution reading technology(!) of the book that wins out every time over Windows?

Whichever way, I’m trying to make one day each weekend into a PC-free zone, when all three of my machines remain switched off, and I can feel that wonderful smoothness I often experience when I’m away from the Net.

Besides, I can always check my e-mail using my Palm or phone.

But please don’t leave an invalid e-mail like my friend from Vietnam the other week.