If one unanswered text can wreck your day, someone else is holding your remote.

When one person’s silence can flatten a whole day, the controls are in somebody else’s hand, and usually they have no idea they are holding them. The silence itself is nearly always about their battery, their shift, or their own distracted afternoon. The damage comes from the meaning you built on top of it while waiting.

Notice the feeling, then go and do something physical and demanding enough to need your attention. The aim is not caring less about people. It is making your afternoon less dependent on a notification, so that when the reply lands it is a nice thing rather than a verdict.