Please be a little specific in your plan, not just “travel”. Where do you want to travel ?
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 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
Technically not a sabbatical, but I saved up a bunch of money, quit my job, and have been studying abroad in Japan.
I can recommend a big stupid project where it’s not a big deal if you fail.
Until recently, for me that would’ve meant “run Windows programs on Android,” mashing together Wine and e.g. Unicorn Engine… but now there’s like six different “userland emulators” vying for preference. FEX-emu, Box86, others with even sillier names.
I did manage a bespoke 8-bit FPS. That only took about two months. And then I’ve been idly tweaking it over the last two years. Splitscreen multiplayer, as a joke, was maybe not the best idea.
What’d take both time and space is some extremely low-end VR. I am convinced that Quest-ish headsets could cost, like, fifty bucks. The big players keep iterating clever hacks from a decade ago. Solving those problem, instead of avoiding those problems. Light should be collimated by default, which means a point source, which is any single LED. Rendering has to be detached from software performance, which means projecting the nearby world to e.g. floating dots instead of directly making a flat image. Inside-out tracking is at least the right idea, but it doesn’t have to be especially good in order to ground an inertial estimate.
Probably a bikini inspector at my favourite beach… Seriously though the Bibbulmun Track.
I’ll go nuts and get myself hospitalized in a psych ward
Two chicks at the same time, man…
Go back to Japan.
Visit Japan, South Korea, and certain EU countries I’ve never been to yet. Also probably spend 2 weeks back in my home country to visit immediate family and some friends.
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.
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
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.
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.
…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.
thats not nothing
- Do a food tour of Vietnam
- Experience more of South East Asia
- Volunteer my time at the City Mission
- Get more sleep
- Workout more
- Spend more time with the girlfriend
- Spend more time with Family
- Work on some personal Web Projects
Not in any particular order.
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?
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
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
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.
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
Do a total renovation of my flat