On April the 1st this year I will be embarking on a yearlong sabbatical from the company I co-run, Stereographic, in order to concentrate on my music and arts projects. I have my personal reasons for taking this step now but many of the broader reasons are valid for anyone deciding to undertake a sabbatical. The benefits to the creative-minded can be immense, so where better to highlight them than here?
First, let’s start by defining the term sabbatical. I’m with Wikipedia on this and would simply define it as “a rest from work, a hiatus, lasting from two months to a year”. I wouldn’t elaborate on this myself, as the key to a sabbatical is simply to have a break from work, from the everyday. For me, these are some of the major benefits of doing so:
Freshness
Our brains are great at organising stuff and providing near instant, ingrained responses. That’s a really important ability to help us function as human beings. Clearly you don’t want to think “what’s that noise?” every time your phone rings, or spend ages assessing the options for dodging that bus.
The more we do the same things the more ingrained our responses become. This is a real killer where creativity is concerned. If you make a concerted effort to regularly change stuff around in your life then you can guarantee greater freshness of ideas, but in all honesty, how many of you have deliberately done something that scares you recently?
Ponder o’clock
This one is simple; time to think about nothing in particular aids creativity. “Aha! moments” require a wandering mind.
Perspective
Building processes to “keep it real” into your daily routine is a start but I believe a truer perception of what you do and aim to achieve is only possible through a sustained period of time off work. The perspective gained through this can only be trumped by one thing in life, trauma…and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
Time to make THOSE ideas happen
The 99% are right in their slogan “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making them happen.” Creative people tend to have lots of ideas for lots of great projects they could bring to fruition, if only they had the time. Have a quick think about your ideas that fit this description. The world would be a better place if they saw the light of day, right?
New opportunities & relationships
Less time in the office / studio means more time meeting new people. Unless you decide to lock yourself in a box for the entirety of your sabbatical this is pretty much a given and good things will come of it!
Financial reward
As an artist/creative you are rewarded for the quality of your ideas and your passion to make them happen. If you are passionate about what you do, you’ll come back to it – only bigger, better and with renewed ideas and drive!
Life is (very) short!
Take two minutes to think about what you are doing with your life. Let’s assume you broadly like it. OK, why not get better at it? Or, if in the end you find there’s something out there you’d rather be doing instead then that’s cool too. The key is to give yourself the space to consider this properly.
After all that…just watch this
Still not convinced? Think it’s unworkable? Think the financial reward bit is just a red herring? Then, please spend 17.5 minutes watching a lecture delivered by the designer Stefan Sagmeister, at TED in 2009. Says it all…
http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html
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By Sam Underwood
Having set myself up for a fall by talking so enthusiastically about sabbaticals, why not keep an eye on how I get on at: http://sabbatical.mrunderwood.co.uk. Oh, and for a quick overview of some of my plans here’s my recent Pecha Kucha 20×20 presentation on the subject: http://www.vimeo.com/19477253
Stereographic will continue to be run by cofounder George Benson.
Let me guess – you’re independently wealthy and don’t have kids?
It’s to be hoped you’re going to keep your pension contributions up so I don’t end up paying for your year of sitting on your arse. Been working 18 years and (if I’m lucky) another 25 to go. Unbroken, as with the vast majority of the UK workforce if they’re lucky enough to remain in employment.
Enjoy it. You are incredibly lucky.
I think it’s only with people making bold decisions like this that we have true innovation that eventually gives people jobs, If we all moaned our heads to the grindstone we’d end up a boring, pitiful excuse for intelligent monkeys…
Hi Rob,
I agree with you that I find myself in an incredibly lucky position but most of this is not down to luck.
I don’t have kids, have never wanted them. This is in large part due to the fact that I am a very driven, and therefore slightly selfish, person. I don’t really do “sitting on my arse”. I consider that I have too much to do and too little time as it is, a situation that kids won’t help. This is by no means an easy decision. I have lost one long term girlfriend in the past as a result, because she couldn’t change me after all, and as I age and watch my brother and friends with their children I realise it’s a major sacrifice.
I left university in 1999 with a first class degree and turned down a well-paid job to start my own business with two uni friends. That was hard too, seeing our friends buying cars and houses when we three lived together in a rented house with our three girlfriends and an office on the landing by the toilet. After two years we finally managed to pay ourselves more than we’d have got on the dole.
Through our hard work our business was a success. We’re not talking millions or anything but we took people on and had a decent client list. However, after seven years of working such long hours and spending too much time managing the business (not enough time being creative), we decided we had to change things. We couldn’t sell the business as we were the business, so we started from scratch with Stereographic. My business partner was the one with the big bollocks here, as he had one kid and another on the way at the time. We built up Stereographic and we’re doing OK.
I have continued to spend all my spare time developing my music projects but at 35 it’s becoming increasingly difficult to sustain, plus I will never achieve my bigger goals musically without more time to work on larger projects.
Another bit of “non-luck” is the fact that I have always saved. Unfortunately, I recently blew nearly all my savings on a new studio I am having built. Not intentionally, things got out of hand, as they do. So now my financial cushion for my sabbatical has gone. I will indeed be taking a payment holiday from my pension but I am confident this represents no risk in terms of creating a future burden on you.
The luck I have had comes in the form of my girlfriend. Not only does she also not want kids but she earns a wage that can keep us ticking over, caeteris paribus. Our household income will be halved by my move and I have had to make many sacrifices from the life I have got used to in order to take this sabbatical. So, yes, I am independently wealthy I guess but that certainly doesn’t make it a no-brainer.
Anyway, sorry to waffle on. You probably didn’t want my life story but I thought detailing this might show you at least that I don’t have the luxury to take this decision lightly. I am able to take it because I have worked hard and done well, plus I’ve had a lucky break or two. By far the safest and easiest thing for me to do would be not to take my sabbatical but I do it because of the reasons listed above.
(Of course you might also be referring to how lucky I am to have had such a great childhood etc…if so, I’ll happily tell you about that sometime. Over a beer maybe?)
Wow, I do hope we wont work ourselves into oblivion. I am glad people are lucky and able to do these type of things. In fact whether they are lucky, gifted, rich, posh, on the dole or any anything else I’m glad people take risks and do something more with their lives – it really enriches the lives of everyone and of society in the end. Isnt it great to be able to tell someone something amazing that you did today? Doesn’t it make you feel better already?
We really are the only people in control of our own destiny.
We just need to dig ourselves out of our sofas and turn the telly off ;) ooh and stop looking at the Internets (sic) all the time. Too much information is bad for creativity.