One Month Sabbatical: I’m Taking June Off From Writing

As regular readers know, I believe that creative genius reveals itself when you show up consistently, put in enough repetitions, and focus on the system rather than the goal.

And that is why I have published a new article nearly every Monday and Thursday since November 12, 2012.

But I also believe in balance, rejuvenation, and the importance of play and having fun. And for that reason, I’m choosing to take a sabbatical from writing during the month of June.



This is the second time I’ve done this. I also took a break during December 2013 and I believe my work improved as a result. I like the pace of working hard for five months, giving myself one month to reflect and rejuvenate, and then repeating the cycle at a higher level of quality. [1]

I find it important to give myself free time to explore ideas and to make sure that I continue writing each week because I love it and not because it’s an obligation. Plus, I like to put my ideas into practice and do things I can sustain.

With that said, I want to say that it is truly a privilege to write for you and I want you to know that I will be spending part of this sabbatical thinking about how I can raise the quality of my writing to a higher level.

You can browse the most popular articles from the first six months of the year (and the full archives) here: Most popular articles and the full archives.

And wherever you are in the world, I hope you find some time this month to balance yourself and insert play and discovery into your life.

Thanks for reading. See you in a few weeks.

Notes

My strategy of taking one month off every June and December means that I have about 16 percent unstructured time each year (2 months out of 12). This is similar to the policies of other very successful businesses like 3M (15 percent free time), Google (“20 percent time” policy), and Treehouse (4-day workweek). The 3M policy famously led to the invention of the Post-It Note and Google claims that their policy has led to major projects like Google AdWords and GMail.