> I never thought I’d take five months off, without being able to explain to a future employer what I was doing. It felt like too much.
I'm very specifically phrasing it as a sabbatical, to hedge against this worry. I think the general population has a vague idea that a sabbatical isn't wasted time. In reality this is probably time for me to recover from burnout, too. But since there seems to be stigma around "burnout" I'm avoiding the whole topic by phrasing it as a sabbatical. I have no guilt about this because I legitimately am taking time to build those things I've always wanted to build, study those things that I know I should study but never had time for, and all those other life things that I know I should prioritize but can never find the time/energy to do when I have a full-time job.
I did cheat a bit this month, though. I got an opportunity to do some contract work with a startup for 1-month (3 hours every day, 7 days a week). There may be an opportunity to work with them again in the coming months but for now I am definitely returning to my own projects starting in September. If you can find short-term gigs like that I'm finding that it's a nice balance. Kinda keeps one-foot in work world and keeps my marketable skills sharp, but then I can go off and do my own thing again.
I've heard a few people say that you need more than a few weeks to recover from burnout. I think there's a lot of wisdom to those statements. I think it takes a few months of completely disconnecting from work pressure. I doubt I'll need a year. I'll probably be itching to get back to a job before the year is up.
More on why I took a sabbatical: https://kayce.basqu.es/sabbatical/prologue
Week-by-week updates if you're curious: https://kayce.basqu.es/sabbatical