The ten most common traps people fall into while on sabbatical

3am thoughts, four months into maternity leave

Before my son was born I kinda knew (intellectually) that he would take over my world (and my schedule) but it’s only now that I really understand what that means in practice.

Four months in, my days are ruled by feeds, naps, cute baby smiles and pterodactyl-like screeches, all of which are unpredictable in timing and length. I rarely get to focus on something for more than a few minutes without being interrupted, be it cooking, conversation or work.

This is a stark contrast to what my days looked like only four months ago, when I was primarily a strategy advisor, helping entrepreneurs and C-suite leaders transform their businesses, and also a sabbatical guide, helping mid-career professionals shape transformational career breaks for themselves. I would spend hours writing, meeting new people or running workshops.

I’m now enjoying stepping into the mum role, but I do sometimes miss being able to focus my attention on something (anything) for more than ten minutes at a time.

One evening…

As I was checking my phone towards the end of a nursing session, I stumbled upon a post on X which snapped me back into my old world.

In that post, the author points out that many of his friends took open-ended career breaks to ‘figure out what’s next’ and ended up ‘failing’ at shaping a new sustainable path for themselves.

While I disagree with the premise that returning to a job similar to your old one = failure, I wholeheartedly agree with the real message which was called out in the replies: if you treat your sabbatical like a random walk in the park then you’re leaving too much of the outcome to luck.

Going on a sabbatical to reshape your career is NOT easy.

There are many ways you could end up disappointed. And there are ALSO many ways you can prevent that from happening.

I felt a strong urge to reply to that post to share the most common traps that I’ve seen people fall into while on sabbatical.

Maybe it would help someone who’s feeling stuck right now.

But… when? How many micro-windows of focus would I need?

I’d only just put the baby down and really needed to sleep immediately if I didn’t want to wake up like a sleep-deprived zombie the next day.

So I let go of the idea that I would ever craft a response, and went to bed.

Then the universe delivered.

My son woke up twice in the night and my brain was on, which meant I was able to type my thoughts one-handed on my phone as I was nursing and helping him back to sleep. Early the next morning I was blessed with a one-hour nap during which I typed my notes up and posted them just before the end of the 24-window after which the algorithm would have buried my reply.

So here they are.

10 common traps people fall into while on sabbatical

And how to avoid them

Trap #1

You’ve set zero structure or intentions for your sabbatical

—and find yourself scrolling on [Reddit, Twitter, Substack, the news—choose your poison]

Instead, set up your sabbatical in the same way you would a big work project. You can decide on explicit start and end dates as well as a few activities you want to explore, ideally with real outputs that you put out into the world. It’s also worth finding an accountability partner or a coach to check in with at regular points in time… it’ll do wonders.

Trap #2

Your sabbatical is too short. Or too long.

The sweet spot for career transformation (which is the context for the original post) seems to be six to nine months. Do less and you’re not giving yourself enough time to let go of your old habits and transform your mindset around work. Do more and the transition back into employed work will likely feel harder albeit not impossible.

Of course, if you’ve planned for a 6-month sabbatical but you’re lucky enough to realise only a few weeks in that you know exactly what you want to focus your attention onto next then by all means return to the ‘real’ world earlier than you’d expected. As Alan Watts said, if you get the message, hang up the phone.

Trap #3

You skipped the recovery phase.

Tempting, because you want to get to the meaty part of your sabbatical more quickly. Or maybe you don’t realise just how depleted you had been and start draining your batteries before having charged them up fully again.

If you take proper time (weeks or even months) to rest, you’ll have a full tank of energy for your sabbatical explorations instead of whatever was left over as you pressed pause on your career.

Take a step back while you rest and you’ll then be able to leap forward.

Trap #4

You escaped the grind… and immediately rebuilt a new version of it.

After years of having to attend meetings, track KPIs and tick off to-do lists, it can feel pretty disorienting to suddenly have an empty diary and zero expectation placed on you by others. I’ve seen so many people fall into the trap of filling up their time with a bunch of tasks that they don’t even want to do, just because it gives them comfort that they are doing something.

Be mindful that this is a risk. When you’ve been running in a hamster wheel for years, it’ll feel weird to step out of it. That weirdness might feel so unfamiliar, so disorienting, that you might be tempted to recreate a feeling of busy-ness, just so you feel like yourself again.

Instead, let go of the felt-sense that it’s important that you are (seen as being) busy. Check in with yourself that what you are choosing to spend your precious time on is actually serving your sabbatical objectives, and ruthlessly cut out the rest.

Don’t create a new job for yourself.

Trap #5

You’re not being curious enough.

Either because you don’t know how, or you’re not giving yourself space to do so.

If you’re going on sabbatical with an intention to figure out how you want to shape the next phase of your work (or life) meaningfully, then you *have to* follow your interests, and engage in projects that allow you to develop your knowledge, excitement and skills in that area.

Treat your sabbatical like a sandbox, your only ‘job’ is to play.

Trap #6

You changed your schedule but not your surroundings.

It’s very hard to rewire your brain if everything around you is reinforcing who you’ve been so far. If you want different ideas, different habits, and a different version of you to emerge, then something in your environment needs to shift. That might mean spending time in a new place, joining a different community, or changing your routines.

It’s easy to overdo it though.

I’ve found that engaging with a LOT of novel things would eat up my energy and leave very little room for depth or reflection. I much preferred making one or two meaningful changes and then letting them work on me before injecting any more novelty into the mix.

Trap #7

You’re doing it all alone.

One of the BIG cheat codes for a successful sabbatical is to find people to experiment with, and commiserate with on difficult days. Online or offline. They can invite you into their worlds, build on your ideas/work and challenge you when you want or need it.

People who don’t do this while on sabbatical often end up feeling like their life is less vibrant after all, and they’re tempted to go back to a job that automatically comes with an okay-rather-than-great social fabric.

Find your people. It’s important.

Trap #8

You’re not doing the necessary introspective work.

By going on sabbatical., you’re stepping out of the hamster wheel to reflect on where you want to go next.

So do it.

Write, move, create, converse.

Take off the autopilot, and figure out what you’re curious about, what you want to see more (or less) of in your life. Process your emotions as they surface. And consciously notice any mindset shifts as they happen, to make them more salient.

Don’t journal yourself into a corner, though. That’s no good either.

Trap #9

You’re not taking enough action.

You can’t think yourself into a new phase of life.

If you uncover something that you feel excited about then go do something real with that excitement. Test the idea. See what it feels like to do the thing.

If you want to be a beekeeper then find a roof to set up a hive on — you don’t need to set up ten hives. If you want to become a community builder then host a party the next day — it doesn’t need to be huge or perfect, it just needs to happen.

I can’t stress this enough:

Muster up the courage to take action. Show up differently in the world and the world to offer you new ways of engaging with it in return.

Trap #10

You don’t actually need a sabbatical. Yet.

I’ve found that sabbaticals work best when there’s something to reflect on and build from.

If you’re early in your career then you’re unlikely to have already built a foundation of skills and experiences to pivot from.

Taking a sabbatical might still be a useful thing to do, but it won’t serve the same purpose as someone who decided to do the same thing after a decade-long career.

Maybe don’t expect to use that break to build a business selling your skills and experience. Instead you could focus on orienting your budding career towards work you find meaningful.

If you’re on sabbatical and feeling stuck, read this

Maybe you’re stuck in what feels like a series of ‘unproductive’ days. Or stuck in a shame loop because you haven’t yet figured out what your sabbatical was meant to do for you.

There’s no shame in feeling stuck.

That’s often the point of a sabbatical: to create space to get lost, poke around in the dark, and eventually bump into something that makes you come alive in a way that you hadn’t felt in a while. It’s not efficient because it’s not meant to be.

I’m hoping this post will help you shine some light on where the ‘stuckness’ is coming from. Just like the night light helps my baby get enough of a sense of his surroundings to feel reassured before drifting off to sleep, it’ll be a lot easier for you to ‘unstick’ yourself once you see what’s blocking you.

Alright.

Baby is waking up.

Send.