What I Actually Did With 4 Weeks Off
I’m back from sabbatical!! I survived!…if not thrived.
This was my first sabbatical of entrepreneurship after 8 years of firm-running. I’ve taken plenty of vacations, but I’m loosely defining sabbatical here as 4 weeks or more away from work.
I intentionally didn’t have anything monumental planned for my time away, and I was honestly concerned that I wouldn’t know what to do without work. This is actually one of my long-range fears about retirement: Who am I without work structure? What would I do without work?
I learned…I did just fine! 😉
Here are some highlights of what my 4 weeks looked like:
Week 1 > This was our normal summer vacation to visit my parents in northern Wisconsin. Since this was our “normal”, it didn’t actually feel like a sabbatical. But I enjoyed lots of good time with family, watched a sunset with my husband, and took many morning walks with my mom.
Week 2 > This one felt weird, because I normally come back from vacation and go right back to work. Instead, I read a lot, watched movies with my kids in the middle of the afternoon, and took care of some weeds and tall grass along our driveway. (I became oddly obsessed with the weeds in our lawn for 4 weeks.)
Week 3 > I took a lot of naps this week. I also worked a lot on our personal finances and long-term planning, which has always been a passion of mine. I cleaned out our junk drawer, talked to a family member about her retirement, and spent an afternoon at the neighborhood pool with friends.
Week 4 > I really started thinking about work knowing that it was coming at the end of the week. I didn’t feel “dread”, but I was sad about my sabbatical time ending. I did knock Minnetonka Cave off my local bucket list this week though. We’ve lived here for 7 years, so this was long overdue.
I also spent a lot of time thinking in the background about the firm I’m running…specifically what are the services I actually want to provide my clients now (not 8 years ago when I start my firm) and what financial need my firm needs to fill in our family’s life now (again, not 8 years ago).
I’m so incredibly grateful for my clients’ grace and understanding that I was able to take the time away to rest, reset my boundaries, and take time to really think about what firm I’m building. (More on resetting boundaries here.)
👇👇👇
BUT that being said. I also came back to…
300 emails in my main firm inbox
100 emails in my Aligned Accountants inbox
244 LinkedIn connections
20+ LinkedIn DMs
Next week, I’ll share how I made it through my emails without losing my mind and give you an exercise you can do on your own inbox (even if you didn’t just take a sabbatical).
If you want to know more about all things sabbatical, I’m not an expert, but happy to answer all your questions (see below).
Glad to be back!
Erica
Save the Date
❓Q&A with Erica: Sabbatical, Ask Me Anything
Thursday, Aug 6th
9am PT | 10am MT | 11am CT | 12pm ET
Free, sponsored by…no one. Just me.
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