I disappeared from my blog for about two months. Before I left, I was posting almost everyday – which got less frequent as I was about to disappear. I got burned out with blogging. How did it come to that point?
Here were the signs that I had to take a sabbatical from blogging:
- I felt that blogging was consuming a lot of my time
- I was obsessed with my view/ visit stats
- After I had a post that went viral, I was focused on creating potentially viral ones instead of creating posts that were relevant to my original objectives
- Blogging got old for me (Some have said blogging is dead already before I even started)
Did the sabbatical help? It did.
- It helped me recover from burn out
- By staying away from stats – and the very low views that came with taking a break – I care much less about them now
- It gave me time to refocus my purpose in blogging
- It made me miss blogging
I once took a three month sabbatical from my day job (as a doctor). It worked well for me.
Of course, the key in doing a sabbatical is having the opportunity to go back. Not everyone will be given the chance to leave and go back. Fortunately, many forward thinking companies now allow sabbaticals. (Read related article here.)
I also took a “break” from one of my previous jobs (management), I didn’t want to go back nor had the chance to go back. That was not really a sabbatical, that was quitting.
Sometimes a sabbatical prevents you from quitting – or encourages you to.
– financemd
thefinancemd.com
Finance, M.D. thefinancemd.com 