TL;DR: We all only have one life. Let’s try to be happy, while it lasts.
The No. 1 question about my Sabbatical is “So, where are you going?”. That’s what people usually take time off for: Extended traveling. Not me. So, what did I take time off for? Short answer: I want to create stuff (and figure out what I’d like to do professionally after the break). The more insightful answer is a bit longer:
In school I averaged in at B- (2- in German grades). My grades had huge variation from A to E – within the same subject. My teachers called me a seasonal worker: Corinna’s interested in the topic? Straight A. Boring topic? D.
That never really changed. I get extremely productive, when something catches my fancy. Most of my reading and experimenting on Agile is the result of such enthusiastic phases. The downside: I can be equally lazy about thing-I-should-be-doing, because all my thoughts revolve around much-cooler-thing-I-WANT-to-be-doing. At work I’m disciplined about this and do thing-I-should-be-doing anyway, albeit somewhat distracted. In private, not so much. We’re always late declaring taxes…
Even my hobbies cycle: Each year I have phases of all-consuming painting, all-consuming crafting, reading ALL the time, … If there was one constant, it was inconsistency. Which I judged to be a bad thing.
Don’t bend yourself, bend the world!
For the longest time I marveled how much I could accomplish if I could only manage to control my productivity bursts and channel them into something that will help me professionally. Then about 4 months ago I’ve had an epiphany: Why not do it the other way around? Why not try to jump into each of my fancies, ride the wave and see where it leads? Instead of trying to be what I think the world wants, I could try to make the world accomodate me.
Do you sometimes buy a lottery ticket to imagine what you would change, if you won? We do that occasionally. Most of my adult life the answer was “I’d change nothing. I like my job. I like my flat. I’m happy. Travel more often and farther away maybe.” During the last 2 years the answer would have been “OMG, I’d totally quit my job.” Not good. Life’s short. Too short. Fortunately, the lottery scenario was the wrong way to think about it, as an “Never work again” scenario. I can’t afford never to work again (and probably would like to work again after a short while, anyway). But I can afford not to work for a few months.
I’m in the very lucky position that I have few commitments: No mortgage, no car, no children. Just my laid back “You can’t take money with you [when you die], so let’s spend it on awesome experiences”-husband and me. I’ll never be as free as I am now. Combined with the job unhappiness, I decided go for it. After all, I’ve had jobs since I was 16. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve had 3 weeks free time to myself…
What I’ve learned about myself so far
So, here I am 3 weeks into a 6-months Sabbatical – jumping into my fancies head first. It’s a big experiment on myself. What will I do when left to my own devices? Actually do stuff or slouch on the couch, eating pralines? Here’s the first observations:
- For the first 2 weeks I build Board Avatars for 14 days straight (with one day off) and it didn’t feel like work at all
- Sleeping cycle: Get up at 9:30 AM, go to bed at 1:30 AM
- Despite the excellent weather I do not work in the park but stay on my couch. I tell myself it’s because there’s no wifi in the park…
- While coding, I re-watch movies and series I already know. It’s strange, but I seem to work better with tv on (not concentrate better, but work better. Hard to describe)
- I really hate having a break (i.e. meeting friends) in my day. The days without any interruptions are the best days. When I can start anytime and work until 1AM.
So far I am very happy with how things are going. I’ve still got a looong list of fancies, enough to fill 2 years! Next up is writing “Getting Started with Retrospectives“. Let’s see how far the wave of enthusiasm will carry me 🙂