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Ask HN: What to do on a year long sabbatical?

by baobaba on 3/3/19, 1:35 PM with 34 comments

I am 30 years old (no spouse or kids), a software developer about to go on a year-long sabbatical after burning out at the current job.

The burn-out is so bad that it's difficult to even get excited about the upcoming sabbatical. I know once I rest a bit, the ideas for what to do will come.

But I am curious to hear from anyone who had done a similar thing. What did you end up doing? What came of it? Do you have any advice for me? Did you figure out what to do next?

  • by gus_massa on 3/3/19, 3:56 PM

    Get a unlimited anual pass in a local gym and force you to go 1 hour every day. I prefer swimming, but any activity will make it.

    That will force you to have a minimal daily routine, and minimal daily interaction with people.

    This is a minimal safeguard in case you are getting too depressed. [Disclaimer: I'd hate it. I only go swimming once a week, I'm not a gym fan, but I try to use the stairs instead of the lift. But I have too much work and too much family members to get enough routine and human contact.]

    And as a side effect, this may be good for your health.

  • by zapperdapper on 3/4/19, 11:46 AM

    I took a year sabbatical in 2017/2018. I was 55. Everyone I spoke to said I was mad, and that I'd never work again (I had been mostly contracting/freelancing over the previous 15 years). I am so glad I didn't listen to them!

    I worked on side projects and general learning, and spent a month in South East Asia.

    Here's what happened:

    1) Noticeable increase in physical and mental well being

    2) Slept better

    3) Ate better

    4) Learned loads

    5) Had plenty of down time and lots of long country walks

    6) Caught up on a lot of reading.

    7) Spent time mountain biking with my brother and then putting the world to rights over coffee in small, quiet coffee shops (Don't underestimate this one - the brain needs it).

    It was absolute bliss. Never a dull moment.

    I came to two important conclusions.

    1) The current work environment for permanent workers is absolutely toxic - toxic to creativity, productivity, problem-solving and mental and physical health.

    2) To see opportunity you have to lift your nose from the grindstone now and then.

    Since the break my freelancing business (which I run on the side) has exploded (more work than I want). I am also working on a web app that could easily be a 10K a month business - in a niche I knew absolutely nothing about before the break (it's travel hacking related).

    Advice:

    1) Get plenty of down time, esp. time outside.

    2) Get plenty of time with your brain (and phone) switched off.

    3) Don't feel you have to be productive (counterintuitive, but this takes the pressure off and you end up more productive).

    4) Travel (wonderful way to grow your mind - live among the locals rather than a five star expat enclave).

    5) Explore areas that are completely new to you. I did this by being inquisitive and often just jumping around on YouTube, and checking out niche areas.

    6) Most of all - enjoy the year off!

    All the best!

  • by csmeder on 3/3/19, 5:07 PM

    After leaving my startup in 2017, I did a two month road trip. Overall it was a low cost way to travel for two months and it allowed me to re-adjust to a slower pace of life and gain perspective.

    This was my itinerary:

    - Yoga retreat in Northern California.

    - A night in the town of Ashland (hotel)

    - A couple nights in Eugene (at a friends)

    - A week helping build a Cobb cottage in western Oregon. Amazing experience. (Camping)

    - Week long meditation retreat outside of Portland.

    - Watching the eclipse from a friend’s farm (a bunch of us camping).

    - A night in Portland (at a friends home)

    - A night in Boise, ID. Cool city, good food. (Hotel).

    - Hot Springs

    - Yellowstone (camping)

    - Grand Teton, did the boat in. (Camping)

    - Denver, great downtown, Celestial Tea factory tour (Stayed with friends)

    - Taos New Mexico, stayed at Lama retreat center in Ram Das’ bus. Amazing experience.

    - Grand Canyon (hotel)

    - Sedona, beautiful. Hike to a “Energy vortex”, I’m not sure I felt anything :) but beautiful. (Hotel)

    - Passing through Phoenix (hotel).

    - San Diego, Wild Life Park. Amazing. (Friends place)

    - San Luis Obispo, CA (passing through)

    - Esalen in big Sur, hot springs, beauty, great food, Amazing.

    - Back home in SF.

  • by mobilefriendly on 3/3/19, 2:13 PM

    Sometime burnout and depression are connected, and a solution: make the first project improving one's personal fitness and nutrition.

  • by trcollinson on 3/3/19, 3:56 PM

    You cite you are burned out and then you quickly dismiss it as something that will go away once you rest. I dare say it won't work like that. Your brain chemistry and thought patterns have been skewed by stress and depression.

    My suggestion, starting today, go see a therapist who specializes in burnout and depression. There are a lot of them. They can help and will help you to enjoy and use your sabbatical. Go for it! Enjoy it! But please, seek out professional help.

  • by matheist on 3/4/19, 12:04 AM

    I also went on a year-ish long sabbatical after burning out at the current job, also at age 30 with no spouse or kids.

    At first, I just went on walks in local parks/gardens/streets, woke up late and sat in sunny cafes.

    I started studying kung fu. I played more music.

    I picked up old math problems (I had left academia; I have a PhD in math) and worked on them again; found some new ones too. I wrote up the results and put them on a blog.

    I got interested in the idea of translating animal sounds to human speech sounds a la style transfer or CycleGAN; that culminated in https://humantoanimal.com/ and also involved learning a whole bunch of new technologies.

    I tried selling services as a consultant but didn't land any clients — there's probably a whole bunch of reasons that that didn't work for me.

    After about a year of being unemployed I started applying for full-time roles again and now I'm working as a machine learning engineer at a household-name tech company.

    The flavor of burnt-out that I had was that of constantly thinking of work-related problems and how to solve them; that feeling went away after a few weeks. Being outside in nature during the workweek and during business hours really helped.

    Some of the things I occupied myself with were things I had wanted to do but hadn't had the time/energy for — more time outside, studying kung fu, more music — but the other things came about after idle thoughts about things that interested me. Send me an email if you want to chat in more detail!

  • by taprun on 3/3/19, 2:21 PM

    I would try to come up with a project that you can focus upon. Whether it's writing a book or learning to sail, you'll be less likely to feel untethered. Also, you'll be able to look back and appreciate the time you had off.

  • by ioddly on 3/3/19, 5:48 PM

    Let me instead suggest what not to do: use the internet or other low protein, high distraction forms of entertainment extensively. Set limits on them and disconnect after a while. If you have nothing else to do, that's fine too, because you'll now think about how you can fill that time in a rewarding fashion.

    That said, since you haven't started yet, go ahead and veg out for a week or two when you do :')

  • by wjossey on 3/3/19, 3:00 PM

    If you can, maybe do some intensive talk therapy for the first month with a therapist, and then work from there.

    I had extreme burnout from my previous company while on the job, and my therapist was instrumental in helping me through that process. The journey of self discovery in that room may help you decide how to use the remaining 11 months, or just help create the space you need to enjoy whatever choices you make.

    Best of luck to you!

  • by harel on 3/3/19, 3:40 PM

    I know you cite burnout but maybe take the time to develop one or more side business of your own and try to make them profitable enough so that year off becomes permanent. It's different when you do the job for yourself rather than an employer. You set the pace, stress, at least for me, was non existence because I didn't I herit it from others around me. I took 7 months off after 7 years in a startup I built. And during that time I built a new business and redone an old one. They are not profitable enough yet but I can see them becoming so. The hardest part is to find a niche to fit in but you can do it by looking back and finding ignored pain points you think people would pay a small amount to have removed if given the option. This will also help you develop new skills. Maybe reignite some passion for coding.

  • by cft on 3/3/19, 5:59 PM

    Go as far as you can, don't attempt to solve any unnecessary domestic problems before the trip. Go to South America, Indonesia, etc. Go to rural places there. When you come back, you will be surprised how easy certain things will be, that seemed unsurmountable.

  • by gvand on 3/3/19, 7:38 PM

    Take a look at yourself and identify things that you'd like to improve now that you have the chance, maybe that you never even though to be possible to improve/learn (too hard, don't have time/motivation/etc...).

    And then improve them, maybe through new positive habits and routines. As other have suggested it could be your fitness level, nutrition, your ability to concentrate or to be less perturbed by external events. Or even the meta-ability to "build habits" to improve various facets of your life.

  • by Meph504 on 3/3/19, 4:39 PM

    Go to the south island of New Zealand, Franz Josef.

    Think about what about your situation burned you out, what you can and will do to prevent it from happening again.

  • by cableshaft on 3/3/19, 2:46 PM

    I did a two month sabbatical once back in 2003. What I ended up doing was spending a good 5 or so hours in the library.

    I would get there, and I wanted to start nice and relaxed, so I found a nice quiet corner and read a book for awhile (I chose a couple of Chinese classics during that period, since I was always curious about them and they were really long: Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms).

    Once I felt I had read enough for the day, usually after about an hour, I'd head to a the ultra quiet area (this was a university library) that had private wooden study cubicles, set up my laptop, and just played around with things.

    One important thing I did was I used a laptop where the internet didn't work on it (the wifi card was fried or something). Now it's not too uncommon for a programmer to 'need' to use the internet for something, but you should fight that urge. The way I was able to get around it was because I was really familiar with the software I was using at that point, and it didn't really have a lot of dependencies or moving parts (it was Adobe Flash, I was making Flash games, it's very self-contained), and the rare times I wasn't sure about something, I just made a note of it to look it up when I got home and worked on something else. I downloaded some documentation also that helped me in the moment a few times as well. (I also don't usually waste as much time on my phone as other people, so there have been a few times since where I will look up something I desperately need to know on my phone while keeping my computer disconnected. If the phone will suck you in to other things, though, don't do this).

    I also had a playlist of songs on my computer that I played on shuffle, but it was the same 100 or so songs each day, so it was almost like a ritual. I'd heard all of those songs a bunch of times before so they weren't distracting. Most didn't have much in the way of lyrics.

    As for what I worked on, I mostly had something in mind already. I had a game that I wanted to rewrite the engine of because it was clunky and acted weird in spots, and I decided to port a game I played a lot in high school on my calculator, so I didn't really have to experiment with the design, I already knew how it worked. Those games became:

    * Clock Legends (the rewrite): https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/116067

    * Squarez (the port): https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/91933

    I'd stay there until I was satisfied, probably about 3 or 4 hours, then call it a day, and go for a walk and get something to eat. If possible, I would try to do something with friends later that day. This was in my early twenties, so I had several friends who were available and liked to do things even on weeknights.

    I've almost never been so productive in any job or time period since, and I credit that sabbatical for a lot of growth in my skills, abilities, and confidence. I'd love to recreate that but it almost doesn't seem possible anymore. Also I have gone through a couple of involuntary sabbaticals since (I was laid off, took 2-3 months to find the next job), but those didn't work anywhere near as well, as I had the growing financial insecurity and constant pressure to find a new job hanging over me.

    So for me, the main takeaways are:

    1. Put yourself in an environment that relaxes you but can be conducive to being productive.

    2. Come up with a routine and a ritual

    3. Even though you have a routine, don't force things. Work when you feel ready, and hopefully you'll want to get started because you're working on something fun.

    4. Don't let yourself stress about other things in life, especially money. Work on something that excites you and don't make decisions about what to work on only because you think it'll make money.

    5. Set up your system so you can disconnect from the internet the entire time. The internet will happily take your whole sabbatical away from you if you let it.

    6. Don't try to work on things for a full 8 hours. Put enough time in that you accomplished something for the day, and when you start to feel a bit tired mentally, stop for the day.

    7. Walks, especially around or in nature, are incredibly useful to help recharge. Try to get at least a 30 minute walk into your daily routine.

    8. Experiment. Do something different with your life than you normally do. You need to knock your brain off the well-worn groove and it won't do that if you're doing the same thing you've always done, just without the job.

    Good luck! I really wish I could take a full year off myself. I'm pretty sick of my current job and I've got a bunch of half-finished projects I'd love to polish up. Unfortunately I can't afford to do that. Maybe I can go on another month or two sometime soon, though.

  • by x0ff on 3/3/19, 4:21 PM

    Go offline. Go on a journey.

  • by shoo on 3/4/19, 8:17 AM

  • by cpursley on 3/3/19, 3:05 PM

    Start off by getting your house in order (finances, health, logistics).

  • by Antoninus on 3/5/19, 2:01 PM

    Currently in Saigon on a sabbatical. I've been reading, riding motorcycles and going to the gym. I'm a month in and I'm getting the itch to read code.

  • by erkken on 3/4/19, 6:58 PM

    Go out on a cycling tour, cross a continent(s) or just a small tour. You will not regret it.

  • by sabbthrow on 3/4/19, 6:17 AM

    Vipassana! Goenka's is good haven't tried mahasi

  • by nickwhite99 on 3/6/19, 2:41 AM

    Book a one way ticket to Hong Kong, then see what happens

  • by dominotw on 3/4/19, 3:01 AM

    learn to ski in colorado.

  • by crb002 on 3/3/19, 9:22 PM

    Get a wife.