Please be a little specific in your plan, not just “travel”. Where do you want to travel ?
A full year of multi month hikes across the world. I want to see it all and meet new people.
Technically not a sabbatical, but I saved up a bunch of money, quit my job, and have been studying abroad in Japan.
Probably a bikini inspector at my favourite beach… Seriously though the Bibbulmun Track.
I’d probably start designing and building a rolling ball clock/ sculpture, then hit some sort of obstacle and switch to making a self recirculating eddy current tube, get frustrated and try to design and build an electronically commutated counter rotating propeller driver, get frustrated and try to build a garage sized 3d printer, get frustrated and try to build a delayed action door closer get frustrated and try to build a co-planar compound cycloidal reducer, get frustrated and then forget my wife’s anniversary until 4pm the day before.
I’ll go nuts and get myself hospitalized in a psych ward
I would spend my year trying to turn my side business into my actual business then I couldn’t quite my job and work for myself doing what I do now but for more money
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Go back to Japan.
I would absolutely have a blast being a full time stay-at-home Dad. We would hit every Park, library, zoo, and aquarium within a days drive.
Then during the summer, I’d pass their kids to their grandparents house so my wife and I could find a place to SCUBA for 2 weeks straight.
Two chicks at the same time, man…
Our dream (my SO and me) is to ride our motorcycles to Japan (from Central Europe). At this time the northern route is politically difficult. The southern route has always been difficult but would be the better option at this time, I think. We even discussed ideas of plans. She could take a half year off, for me it would be more difficult. But the funds would be the biggest issue. So plan B is to rent motorcycles for a week or two, next time we’re in Japan.
I hope you’ll be able to do it someday. It’s a really nice project
I’d hike the Appalachian Trail.
I’d do the Sentiero Italia (Grand Italian Trail)
Wow that must be so cool to do ! Both projects are really nice !
My question to anyone able to answer this: how can you afford to take a sabbatical period??? I can’t even afford to take a weeks vacation. It would wreck me financially not receiving pay for a whole week. Let alone a year??? What’s going on in this thread?
I’ve been saving 30-40% of my salary each month for years, it helps not going outside because you don’t like people and watching movies and playing video games. And eating ramen
Read mrmoneymustache.com.
There are some platforms like World Packers where you receive free food and a bed for helping out in places. But I guess that still doesn’t cover travel, insurance, debt, and any other long term payments you might have to make
step 1 : have a career
step 2 : don’t spend that much money, building up savings
step 3 : time is money, therefore, money is time.
step 4 : be very, very frugal during your time with no work. I ate a lot of protein powder, eggs and pasta
What is a career in your definition?
In this context, it’s an employment specialization that allows you to earn a greater than average income. I was amazed that as a software tester I used to get paid more than a nurse, an arguably more stressful and more important employment path.
I’m on the left. It’s a hard thing that happens in life that I am pointing out, not agreeing with.
Sleep, play with my cats, hang out with my wife, organize all my shit, prune my emails and pictures, finish my homelab and the other tech projects I have going on, go to Disney a bunch.
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Nothing! I’m super-serious, and I plan on doing exactly that for the following 6 months (quit my job, taking a break to address burnout and reorient): nothing.
By that, I mean I’ll allow myself to get as much sleep as I humanly can, try to feed myself healthier food (and more regularly), develop my hobbies (mini painting, playing the bass, sketching, writing), re-establish a semblance of a social life by exploring the city and its options, spending more time with friends… Pretty much just living life. No goals, no quotas, no deadlines, no performance metrics, no side-hustle, no work.
…get as much sleep as I humanly can, try to feed myself healthier food (and more regularly), develop my hobbies (mini painting, playing the bass, sketching, writing), re-establish a semblance of a social life by exploring the city and its options, spending more time with friends… Pretty much just living life.
That’s not nothing!
Thoroughly agreed, that’s what I call everything not viewed as immediately societally productive. More of a sarcastic reversal of the main complaint I’ve received throughout my life while just living it.
This is essentially what I did when I was laid off August last year. And it did take about that long to really be free of all the stress I’d racked up over the years in retail and other public customer-facing roles.
It really does take a while… Had a 9-month breakdown during the Pandemic, that one was exclusively for mental health care. I literally locked myself in my apartment and did nothing but eat, sleep, play vidya, get high, and have weekly therapy sessions for the entire duration.
It took 8 months to stop being anxious about not being stressed out. Used to wake up every morning with that sharp fear that I’d missed my daily meetings, then it would slowly turn into an “oh, shit, I’m not being Productive” jumble of self-loathing and panic.
That sounds beautiful.
I plan on doing exactly that for the following 6 months (quit my job, taking a break to address burnout and reorient): nothing.
I wouldn’t call adressing a burnout a Sabbatical but a sick leave, a Sabbatical is choosing to take time off work for a project, not needing to take time off work for your mental health
Sorry that you’re there (And use the health issue as an explanation for the hole in your CV if they ask)
Agreed, expressed it incorrectly, the burnout is nowhere near the main reason for my taking time off. I needed to take a break from Adult Stuff. I mean, last time I did anything even remotely resembling a vacation/holiday was in 2014, now I’m taking my time.
I did the same, except ‘nothing’ was ‘play with my kid’ and several years later it still registers as a very happy time, even though I should have been worrying about work, or lack thereof.
(I was going to the trampoline park 2-3 times a week with a toddler, great times.)
This is what life should be like in a sane world. Work should never take up as much of our cognitive bandwidth as it does now.
I did that when i got laid off in January. Can recommend. Mental reset helps. Having no job helps with refocusing on whats really important, like own mental wellbeing, family and friends. Good times, tho i got pretty stressed out because searching for new job took a while, despite everyone else in IT got one in 15mins it seemed at the moment
thats not nothing