I Can't Sit Still on a Sunday
Three macro forces behind the restlessness
I struggle with a constant tension, and maybe many of you feel it too.
By most measures, I have pretty good balance. I work hard, probably 60ish hours a week at my day job and another 5 to 10 on my own projects (like what you’re reading here).
My time during the week is pretty much accounted for between day job, personal projects, family time, and exercise. On the weekends, I have more free time, typically spent with my wife and our baby, and perhaps seeing our family or friends.
Despite having that balance, I still can’t sit still on a Saturday or Sunday. It’s really hard for me to enjoy leisure at home on a Sunday with my wife and our baby, no deadlines, nowhere to be, and still feel this pull that I should be working on something.
Sometimes because I want to. I do want to be creating and building projects of my own. But maybe more so because some part of me believes that if I stop, we’ll fall behind. I want to be able to choose rest without guilt. Right now, I can’t. The chatter of falling behind, of not getting to where I need to be, shows up uninvited.
All I’m after is a good life. And by that I mean no/little financial stress. The ability to take care of what we need for us and our children, and enjoy what we want without pinching pennies. I like nice things, but within reason. I’m not chasing riches, I don’t need to be ultra-wealthy, I just want a life well lived and financial stability for the long term.
And yet even to achieve that simple desire, I feel a daily tension. I want to be present for the time I spend with my wife and our baby, but my perception is that it has never been harder to build a family and attain the same life our parents did. We are regressing as a country in our ability to live on par with the generation before us.
I’m sure this feeling is as old as time. But my perception is that three forces unique to this moment may be making it more pronounced than ever.
Part of this is probably just me. I’m wired this way. My old man can’t sit still either. He’s always keeping himself busy with a project around the house. I’m less inclined to do a house project, more inclined to be constantly building something online, ideating, thinking about the next thing.
But it’s not just me. Even if I’m predisposed to this, I think there’s an entire generation of people who can’t relax, and I’m trying to unpack why. Some see the challenge ahead of them and check out and give up. Others, like myself, have that constant nag that what they’re doing is not enough.
I think it comes down to three forces working on us at the same time.
The first is how fast technology is moving.
Things are advancing at an unprecedented rate. I’ve been using AI every day for over a year now and increasingly so for more advanced work, strategic planning, and even building basic applications for work.
It’s creating an immense amount of opportunity, and if you’re not constantly staying in the loop and pushing the edges of what’s possible, it’s hard not to feel like you’re falling behind. It’s partially a feeling and partially true.
The acceleration creates this perception that there are unlimited options available to you at all times, and if you’re not working toward something every single day, you’re losing ground.
That said, I think this is also deeply connected to the second force. You may not see nearly the same volume of progress and taste of what’s possible with these technologies that I do, since my feed on X is dominated by AI and entrepreneurship at this point. As well as the many viral posts about how you have a short window of time to build and invest your way out of serfdom. I’ve written before about why that framing should be ignored, but it still gets in your head.
The second is that we’re chronically online.
We can access information at all times of the day. We can see what the top builders, creators, and entrepreneurs are doing. Most people are sharing their wins, posting about what they’ve shipped, what they’ve accomplished before breakfast. Or even now, what their AI agents have accomplished while they were asleep.
Even though I understand a lot of these posts are performative, designed to get engagement, a lot of it is also true. What’s possible with these technologies today compared to a year ago is remarkable.
I noticed this recently. I had a great day. Went up to New York with my family. During the morning, I met up with other people building local media. Then we went and grabbed a bite with friends at one of our favorite places in the city. It was a nice time and I was totally unplugged for the day.
And then later that night, I wanted to share my experience online, mostly because I committed to myself that I would share one thing each day in 2026. So I didn’t want to break my consistency streak.
The moment I opened Twitter, I was immediately bombarded with everything other people are building. That feeling of FOMO, of falling behind because I wasn’t building that day. Even though I had just spent the day doing something meaningful.
That’s the thing about being online. Before all of this, you were unplugged. You were focused on what was immediately in front of you and in your local community. There was no ambient scoreboard running in the background.
It's a double-edged sword. Social media can be a great tool. In fact, it's how I discovered the people I met up with earlier that day in New York. But there's no doubt that it can easily do more harm than good, even if you're intentional about how you use it. No matter how disciplined you are, the feelings of inadequacy still creep in.
The third is how unaffordable life has become.
We’ve all seen the statistics. Homes are less affordable today than at nearly any point in modern US history. The median home now costs close to 7x times the median household income. A generation ago, that number was closer to 3.5x. And there are downstream consequences: lower marriage rates, lower birth rates, more depression, less social cohesion, a declining belief that you can actually get ahead.
For many people, achieving even a decent life, nothing extravagant, is becoming increasingly difficult on a single income and in many cases even two. Supporting a growing family and trying to set them up for success? That’s becoming a tall order.
A big part of the pressure I feel every day is rooted in this. I realize how stacked the odds are. I know that just working a stable 9-to-5 is probably not enough to build the life I want for my family, which is why I don’t do that... among other reasons. So I am constantly feeling like I need to be evolving, constantly need to be building, constantly need to be thinking about work and how to get ahead.
A lot of that pressure is self-imposed. But it’s self-imposed because of what I know. Because I can see how expensive it is to be alive and to support a family right now.
If I could distill all of this down, it’s the collision of three things: technology moving at an unprecedented pace and creating massive opportunity, a culture of being chronically online where you’re constantly exposed to what the highest achievers are doing, and an affordability crisis that makes even reasonable expectations feel out of reach.
Put those three together and they create an immense pressure. A pressure that makes it genuinely hard to just be at ease, even when you have pretty good balance, even when that’s the only thing you actually want.
If you can’t tell, I am still trying to figure this one out. And I’m not sure if I am close yet.
What I do know is that I want to be the kind of person who can enjoy a quiet Saturday without feeling like I’m losing ground. I want to be fully present with my wife, with my family, without the low hum of “you should be working” running in the background.
I know that some of this pressure is structural and real. It’s not all in my head. The system we live in has made it genuinely harder to just exist comfortably, and that reality creates a kind of survival mode that’s hard to shut off even when you’re safe.
But I’m also self-aware enough to know that a lot of it is self-imposed pressure. Expectations I’ve set for myself. But these are expectations that I don’t necessarily think are incorrect, I just need to get better at managing them.
Easier said than done, trying to operate in a broken financial system, where the measuring stick (the dollar) constantly changes. Cost of living continuing to climb at an accelerating rate. A technological exponential curve that is just getting started. A loud and performative culture online. And the struggle within.
My grandfather didn’t have a newsletter. He didn’t have a Twitter feed. He didn’t have a side project. He had a job, a family, and a garden. And I think he was at peace with that in a way that I’m still learning how to be, if it’s still possible in 2026.
Maybe that’s the real cost of the world we’ve built. Not just the financial cost, which is staggering. But the psychological cost. The inability to rest. The feeling that enough is never enough. The quiet erosion of something that used to come naturally to people: the ability to just be.
I'm working on it. If this resonates, I'd love to hear from you. Do you experience this too? How do you manage it?
All understandable Jackson.
I walk this big ball mixing Rolf Dobelli's "The Art of the Good Life" with Oliver Burkeman's content, but most importantly, in every action I take, I intend it always to be backed by self-esteem that has been reinforced over the years with continuous "Atlas Shrugged" introspection. WWJGD?
To each his own. Best, Mike
As a goal-driven person who felt completely responsible for my personal and financial welfare, I was forunate to learn in my late 20's, the importance of my spiritual life to create balance, perspective, health and financial wellness. Now, I have it all. An comfortable and grateful life.
Learn how the universe works. Yes there is a pattern to creation, its not random. Nothing is by chance. Get curious to study spiritual texts. I highly recommend, the Three Initiates, (Hernetic laws) and a Metaphysical Bible dictionary to understand the deeper meaning of scripture. This will open your eye and heart, and provide you the real knowledge for success and a happy life, without working 60 hours a week. And you will have valuable information to teach your children.