✦Career · 11 recordsTake a sabbatical

A sabbatical with no purpose becomes a long, slightly anxious holiday. This settles the three things that decide whether it works — what it costs, what your employer agrees to in writing, and what you want to be true at the end — before any of it is booked.

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Goal

Take it, and come back on purpose Month 6

Funded, agreed in writing, and with a reason attached.

Money and terms Month 3

The two things that decide whether it happens.

  • Work out the real cost, including the bills that carry onDo firstWeek 2
  • Decide how long that actually buysDo firstWeek 3
  • Agree the dates and the return in writingDo firstMonth 3

Decide what it is for Month 6

Rest, a project, a place, a decision. Any of them, but one.

  • Write down what I want to be true at the endDo firstWeek 4
  • Plan the first fortnight, then leave the rest openMonth 4

Routines

  • An hour on the planweekly
  • Put the money asideweekly
✦ It comes with a note

Agree the return in writing

A friendly verbal arrangement survives a change of manager badly, and the return is the vaguest part because it is furthest away.\n\nDecide what it is for before it starts. Rest counts. What does not work is arriving with no answer and discovering in week three that the first fortnight was the plan.

✦ Questions

Take a sabbatical, answered.

The obvious half is the lost income; the half people miss is that most fixed costs carry on regardless. Working that total out is the first task here, because it decides the length far more than the plans do.
The dates, the terms and what happens on return, in writing. A friendly verbal arrangement survives a change of manager badly, and the return is the part that is vague precisely because it is furthest away.
Knowing what it is for before it starts. Rest, a project, a place, a decision — any of them works, and none of them happens by default once the first fortnight of doing nothing has gone by.
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