Designing My Perfect Sabbatical
(2 min read) Do things that energize and skip that don’t
It's been roughly 23 years since I took a break longer than six weeks. Finally, today (June 29, 2024), I am starting my six-week sabbatical.
I delayed taking my sabbatical for an entire year because I wanted to ensure I had plans to make the most of it.
To generate ideas, I talked to folks who have recently returned from their sabbaticals or have taken one in the past. I also talked to my friends in academia about what they do during their sabbaticals. Academia wasn’t that helpful, as their sabbaticals are often opportunities to do industry work, so I skipped that advice.
Common suggestions I received included:
Traveling to a new destination
Relaxing and recovering
Regular hiking
Solo trips
Trying new cuisines
Starting writing projects
Searching for a new job
Catching up on overdue house chores
While these activities are great, personally, I did not resonate with many.
Further searching did not result in any new activities. So I decided that I would go on sabbatical when I could answer the questions:
“What is the goal of my sabbatical? What state do I want to be in when my sabbatical is over?”
It may seem that I am overthinking a six-week break. Well, I am, and here’s why:
This is my first true six-week break in 23 years. If this sabbatical is successful (as per my goal below), I plan to reduce the time between my sabbaticals and increase their length.
This is my pilot sabbatical.
Considering that I am on sabbatical now, I have answered the question:
What is my goal with the sabbatical?
Coming up with an answer took a while. It actually happened by talking to the same folks again and asking two additional follow-up questions:
Why did they decide to do the activity they did during their sabbatical?
How did they feel about the activity once they completed it?
To the first question, people’s answers were:
Always wanted to
Wanted to try something new
It was on my bucket list
Saw someone else do it, so decided to try
And then to the second question, this is where things got interesting, the answers fell into two categories:
They felt energized, wanting to do more of it
Meh, they were not likely to do it again or it wasn’t for them
This is what I was looking for.
You could see the twinkle in people’s eyes who felt energized by the activity and couldn’t wait for another sabbatical. They were actively trying to integrate their new experiences into their current lives. The others went back to normal.
I want to be in the first category, and as a result, this became my goal:
Do things that energize me and avoid things that de-energize me.
Coincidently, this is a state of happiness for me (and many others). And this state is what I plan to achieve by the end of my sabbatical.
Next, I came up with a list of things that energize me. Here are the top ones:
Writing this blog: I have 300+ posts sitting in my draft folder. I plan to publish many of them. They cover topics like software engineering, people management, and leadership in tech. If you like those topics, subscribe. It’s free.
Building software: I have a few side projects that I want to finish. I may not publish them as they are only for me, but we’ll see.
Working on a business idea: People who know me, know something is coming :)
Spending time with friends and family: Especially this.
Doing creative work: I haven’t figured out exactly what yet. Suggestion welcomed.
Playing: Tennis, cricket, other sports, and instruments.
That seems like a lot for a six-week break, but I am going to try it anyway. There are things that de-energize me, which I will keep private :)
In six weeks, I will make another post summarizing my sabbatical experience.
Till then, the latest updates will be from this blog, my twitter (@mayankv_tweets), and my LinkedIn (@vermayank).
Looking forward to the journey.