This holiday break I did something totally different — I took a sabbatical

How rest and a change of pace can refresh your mind

Sabbaticals can profoundly change your life.

During this year’s holiday break (about two weeks for me) I chose to take a sabbatical and not work on anything I normally would have. No writing, no tweeting, no technical reviews.

The thought of taking two weeks off and being forgotten amongst the crowd kinda terrified me, but that’s how I knew it might be worth it.

Here’s what I did and how it went.

What I did

While most online entrepreneurs kept tweeting and hustling, I:

• Played board games with the gf and kids
• Painted the dining room (Behr, English Channel)
• Learned how to make pancakes and my mom’s famous hash brown potatoes
• Bought a reverse hyper machine and started strengthening my posterior chain
• Stretched my psoas…a lot (google ‘frog pose’ and you’ll catch a glimpse of my routine)
• Drove back-and-forth several times to my dad’s and listened to a bunch of podcasts
• Laid around and played a ton of video games, mainly Teamfight Tactics and Metroid Dread
• Taught myself how to maneuver tokens on DeFi, taking advantage of crypto protocols and their insane APR
• Finally took the plunge into Crypto Raiders (by far one of the coolest games/communities I’ve ever been a part of)

How it went

I really f*cking enjoyed my time off. Also:

• 100+ new article and twitter thread ideas in my notebook
• Gained clarity on where I want to focus my efforts in 2022
• Made a few thousand $$ from Crypto Raiders and other DeFi protocols
• I’ve been waking up with fewer aches and pains as a result of stretching
• Woke up this Monday morning with a fiery passion to kick off the year strong

‘Sabbatical’ comes from the word Sabbath meaning ‘day of rest’, and though I definitely got plenty of that, I was kinda shocked at how well things turned out.

It was like pressing the refresh button at the top of my browser. By engaging in new and sometimes uncomfortable activities, I forced my brain to think differently. I’ve already noticed more creativity in how I’ve been solving problems, and I can tell just from writing this essay that my brain is operating better than before.

But above all, I gave my mind a rest from all the go-go-go of modern society and just let it do its thing for a while. My god, what a difference two weeks off makes.

100% will be doing this every year.

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