Sabbatical, a Story + Advice

Matthew Salenger

01.18.25

Purpose of this Document: To encourage others to take a sabbatical, and to impart positive and negative aspects I encountered prior to and during my Sabbatical year; In a way that makes a Sabbatical more realistic and beneficial to others; So that professionals and other workers of any age can have a more fruitful career by combating burnout, working on a personal project, or spending more time with loved ones.  (Feedback is always welcome)

A. The pre-planning

In 2021 I started realizing I was becoming burnt out in my professional life and felt I needed a break from normal work. I recalled having seen a Ted Talk sometime around 2015 about a graphic designer that closed his entire studio for a year every seven years, called “The Power of Time Off.” And it really stuck with me.

That summer of 2021 I started musing about a full-year sabbatical, but thought it would not be possible because- well, because “it’s just not done” by studio architects.

I kept thinking about the option of a Sabbatical- was it actually possible and/or feasible? I looked at my long-range calendar and saw that all my current projects at the time ended in the third and fourth quarter of 2023. I vowed to myself NOT to take or pursue new projects that came my way. And I did say “no” to a few interesting projects.

In early 2022 a call from a past client let me know they had raised enough funds for an amazing project, and there was no way I could say “no” to it. I spent all of 2022 putting together permit drawings, working late and on weekends, and not seeing my wife, son, family or friends. The project’s calendar had construction starting around September of 2023 through April of 2025, railroading my 2024 Sabbatical plans. I told myself “It couldn’t be helped” and figured I might be able to just push the Sabbatical off for another two years.  

B. The Planning Before the Sabbatical Year of 2024

2022 had done a number on me, and I really wanted to spend more time with my wife and son, plus friends. Thankfully my wife really supported the idea of taking a year for myself. Thus, in the fall of 2023- deep into the one large project- I started to plan again.

How do I rejuvenate myself? How much travelling should I do- particularly when trying to balance being alone with seeing family and friends? How much money should I allocate to the Sabbatical? And what is a Sabbatical, really? Once I started thinking about things, I realized this required some real effort and planning.

I wanted to get some background information- to get inspiration from the source. I looked into the word “Sabbatical,” which was interesting but limited. I had been listening to Ezra Klein’s podcast during the year and came across an episode called “Sabbath and the Art of Rest” that was created in 2022. There were some really interesting take-aways from the show, but it was not about taking a professional Sabbatical. The guest was Judith Shulevitz, a Jewish Rabbi that has written and spoken extensively on the subject of the Sabbath. Very interesting podcast, and there were a couple of takeaways for me:

A.      It is a day of rest, but also a day where one tunes out the work-week and their other normal occupations.

B.      It is also a day of community, where others of the same faith gather. This is seen as a supportive event each week, where people can reconnect and strengthen bonds.

Shulevitz mentioned something in the pod-cast that has lived rent-free in my head since: “The Sabbath cannot be done alone; it requires a community. That is the only way it works.” And I thought, “Well, damn. I’m doing this alone- I have no choice.” It was too late to try to get others to take a simultaneous sabbatical.

C. Pre-Sabbatical Personal Project

There was also another need for my Sabbatical: A personal project that I had been mulling over since late 2020. During the ‘lock down year,’ I was in scores of meetings with people- many of them all over the world. People would discuss what they were feeling or thinking. What I kept hearing was that many people had strong desires of:

1.       living in a small community of 200-300 people where one could create strong inter-personal bonds

2.       living immediately close to nature

3.       living in one place through all of life’s cycles (not having to change locations to change homes)

4.       living a self-sufficient life, or better described as living regeneratively with the site of one’s home for food, energy, water, economy, etc

At the end of 2020 I had written an essay about what I was hearing, and how the Pandemic might change the way we live. I asked 10 friends to read it and give feedback. Several said, “when are you going to design the project?” I wanted to dig into designing something that might transform the housing industry, but there was never enough time to work on it. I thought, maybe one could do the needed deep dive during a sabbatical. That became a very strong “need” for me to fulfil. I had thought and spoke about the ideas often, and I knew I needed to do the work this particular project asked for. It became an energizing force for me to move forward with the Sabbatical.

D. Professional Development and Journaling

I also felt like the studio had reached an inflexion point. I had all kinds of ideas about how to improve all stages of a project; ideas about personal development; ways to improve the studio; ways to get the right clients, etc. January 1st 2024, the start of my Sabbatical, I started journaling. During the Sabbatical I produced 60+ pages of text. I journaled almost every week. It was been extremely valuable. I looked into how I felt about everything I’ve been involved in over the past 10 years. During 2023 I was involved in five different organizations, and often managing the scheduling for each. I wrote about my feelings for each and pared it down to just one group, which I thought might not survive the year if I were not involved. The others would be fine.

E. How the Sabbatical Went: Mixed

I had a couple of bad illnesses, injuries, a trip cut-short, sabbatical design-project delays, and WAY more hours working on the one real project I stayed on with than I had expected. As I write this, it is January 2025 and I am still very much burnt out. But there were a lot of successes as well. The sabbatical design-project is looking good. I wrote out some thoughts that might transform the housing industry, and have already seen positive movement on some aspects. I solidified a lot of thinking, and made improvements of how I work. I produced enough thought on production and design to think about for the rest of my life.

F. Major Sabbatical Advice

1. It actually does take a community: I had about a dozen colleagues that I bounced ideas off of, which was incredibly helpful. Some of them even helped take some of my work load so I could Sabbatical better. Wow and super thanks to those people! Next time I’d like to plan with others so there can be a community Sabbatical. It may be best to do it in interlocking moments, bouncing in and out of each other’s Sabbaticals to balance solitary and group experiences.

2. Think big AND small: I took on way too much. Do NOT do that. Figure out how to work small with big effects. I recommend journaling as an example.

3. Travel plans: I mostly travelled to places that contained friends and family, which did not help with burnout, unfortunately. I suggest mostly travelling to new places, meeting sporadically with your fellow Sabbaticalers (not a real word.) Mix in a trip or two of “reconnecting visits” with friends and family, particularly if you have no personal project. I planned four 2-week trips; which felt like a good balance with my wife and son, who endorsed the travel.

4. Downtime at home & abroad: I found some success in combating burnout at home by truly “turning off” and being alone during the work/school week. I would journal, watch a movie, or read. But the best regeneration for me came during a trip to a tropical destination where I planned physical activities each morning, and then did nothing but lay around reading books I was excited about- mostly fiction or non-fiction that seldomly related to work.

5. Make sure you truly have enough time around any professional work during a Sabbatical. I worked WAY too much- I would estimate 2-3 day per week all year on “real” work. I was spending 2-3 days a week working full-time on my Sabbatical Project too. I think the less “real work” you have/do, the better the experience. I also recommend no more than an average of 1 day per week working on a personal project. Skipping both real work and personal projects may maximize the experience.

6. Share your Sabbatical thinking and experience with others in your community. People were very supportive of mine. Don’t keep it to yourself. Support others. Form a community. And let me know how it went!

7. Learn from my experiences as described in this document. Give yourself enough time to plan (I’d start a year or more ahead,) say no to work, discuss with your employer/partners, discuss with your family, and (of course) build a community- even if it is a modest one. Start saving money to survive more than just one year of Sabbatical, as work may not be present when you finish the year.

8. I have recently been thinking about the word “Dérive,” a buzz word from the 80’s and 90’s. “Drifting” might be an exciting idea for a Sabbatical year- though not exactly as Guy Debord described, as that might feel like work. Instead, I’m thinking of going somewhere new to me, safe, and remote- and simply… experience… and exist… in each moment for what it is- without judging it.

 Have Fun!