A personal reflection on taking my first sabbatical — from planning and preparation to the valuable lessons learned along the way.
The Beginning
What is a Sabbatical?
A sabbatical or sabbatical leave is similar to regular time off that it's a break from work or routine activities. The difference is that a sabbatical has a longer duration (see Indonesian dictionary definition), and has deeper purposes or reasons.
The origin of this concept comes from the Bible (Leviticus 25), where farmland needed to rest for one year after being used for six years. However, in the modern context, sabbaticals have evolved to become an opportunity for:
- Rest and recovery
- Self-development and learning new things
- Personal or professional exploration
- Pursuing interests outside of work
Not a Half-Hearted Decision
Before deciding to take a sabbatical, I made sure that this wasn't just something I needed, but also something I truly wanted.
Picture it like having two halves of a heart. One half represents "needs" and the other represents "wants." I had to make sure both were "lit up" and whole before making my decision. Why?
There were many considerations: impact on career, financial readiness, personal and professional goals to achieve, family support, and employer approval (if relevant). In my case, I decided to resign from my job. So employer approval wasn't an issue. However, this made other considerations even more crucial.
This decision-making process involved numerous discussions with many people: parents, siblings, close friends, colleagues, and even financial planners and insurance advisors. All this was to ensure my plan was solid and I could go through my sabbatical peacefully, including making sure of financial stability during this period.
Purpose of This Writing
Like many of my other writings on this page, this piece serves as a reflection of my experience taking a sabbatical for the first time.
I'm very aware that a sabbatical is a privilege that not everyone can have. Through this writing, I hope it can serve as a reminder for myself and perhaps for you too, that there are times when we need to take a step back, rest, and take care of ourselves.
The Experience
Setting Goals
As I mentioned before, a sabbatical isn't a half-hearted decision. After discussing with many people and gaining more objective views, I started setting goals for my sabbatical. However, this process wasn't as easy as imagined.
Initially, I often fell into the trap of setting goals that were too high or ambitious — things I could possibly do, but didn't really want to or wasn't capable of doing.
Example: I had set a goal to start going to the gym and pay for a personal trainer. When faced with financial reality, I had to cross out this goal — the money I had prepared wouldn't be enough for a gym membership, let alone a personal trainer.
So I guess just... keep it real. From this mistake, I started focusing on goals that I truly wanted and could achieve. For the previous example, I finally decided to use free apps that provide workout guidance and follow exercise advice from doctors during my medical check-ups.
Besides being more affordable, this approach also provided greater flexibility in my exercise schedule and location. And I'm grateful for doing it, as I also got clearer steps from doctors and nutritionists to improve my health.
After this learning experience, I refined my goal-setting process by:
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Writing down all goal ideas that came up
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Evaluating these ideas every 2 weeks
To question the validity of each goal idea:
- Is this still relevant?
- Is this just a momentary emotion?
- Is this really what I want and need?
- Is this realistic and achievable with my current resources?
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Narrowing down ideas into several main goals that are realistic and meaningful
This process helped me focus on goals that are truly important and meaningful to me. With clear and realistic goals, I could detail the actions needed to achieve them. These goals became a compass that guided my daily activities, ensuring that my sabbatical time was used maximally and meaningfully.
Financial Planning
Actually, it's simple: be debt-free and have enough savings to cover daily living until a set time.
Why is it simple for me? I'm fortunate to have developed a habit of tracking expenses. This means I have a clear picture of my monthly spending and where my money goes. In my opinion, this is the most important thing before starting a sabbatical.
Without tracking expenses, the planning becomes more complex and challenging. It would be harder to understand monthly spending patterns and lifestyle costs, making it difficult to estimate how much savings would be needed.
Here are several steps I eventually took to prepare financially:
- Pausing all my financial goals — I prioritized everything for sabbatical financial readiness.
- Trying not to upgrade my lifestyle even when I had more money. Because once lifestyle goes up, it's harder to bring it down.
- Consistently maintaining my existing lifestyle, because there are many temptations to upgrade to a higher lifestyle when income increases.
- Saving approximately 12 months' worth of my expenses for the sabbatical, separate from emergency funds (6 months of expenses).
- Buying personal health insurance as a precaution adds confidence and peace of mind because everything is well covered, especially considering the uncertainties that might happen during the sabbatical period.
This solid financial planning is crucial. It gives me peace of mind during the sabbatical, allowing me to focus on established goals without worrying about daily finances.
Detailing Activities
After setting goals and securing financial readiness, the next step was detailing activities and their timeline during my sabbatical. This process was important to ensure my sabbatical time would be used effectively and meaningfully.
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Actions
In breaking down actions, I started by outlining the steps needed to achieve each goal. I utilized various learning resources on the internet. This included AI and LLMs which became quite effective quick tools for this purpose (of course with supervision and regular prompt adjustments).
It was important for me to ensure each action was realistic and doable with available resources. I also tried to balance actions between self-development, goal achievement, rest, and entertainment, so my sabbatical would be not just refreshing but also productive.
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Timeline
I created a timeline for the entire sabbatical period. I planned each day and hour, what activities I needed to do. Interestingly, without realizing it, I learned to manage the flexibility I had.
Many people think a sabbatical is a time to completely disconnect from everything. That's what I initially thought too. I thought about doing nothing at all. Just wanted to laze around. Although I ended up doing that sometimes, I still managed my time so the detailed actions would keep moving forward.
For example: I allocated one week for resting and doing spontaneous activities like playing games, hanging out with family or friends, and going on vacation. Then the following week, I focused on commitments and planned structured activities.
This method worked really well for me. I never felt bored during these approximately 10 months. Each day brought something new. This structured flexibility helped me maintain predictable days, sufficient rest and sleep time, and steady progress in existing actions even if just 1% each day (from the book Atomic Habits).
Maintaining Skills
As a software engineer, this is crucial. I need to emphasize that this was included in my sabbatical goals too. I'm highlighting it in a separate section because it's important to elaborate on.
Technology evolves very rapidly, and I needed to keep up and learn to ensure my skills stayed sharp. Here are some strategies I applied to maintain skills:
- Documenting experience: I tried to pour all my experiences into a personal document. This helped me organize my knowledge and made it easier to find information when needed later.
- Relearning fundamentals: I focused on relearning computer science and programming basics. This helped strengthen my foundation, allowing me to learn new programming languages or frameworks faster.
- Building projects: The most effective way to understand what I learned was by practicing it. I tried creating new applications, like the offline-first app "Kapan Ya?" that I've released.
- Maintaining existing projects: I kept maintaining my project, "freedomlife". This included gathering user feedback and iterating for improvements.
- Following industry developments: I stayed up-to-date with the latest trends in software engineering through various sources like technical blogs, YouTube videos, and podcasts.
Although these strategies were effective in maintaining skills, it's important to remember that a sabbatical is also about balance and refreshment. There were times when I felt burnout and reluctant to touch anything programming-related. When this happened, I took a step back and rested. I realized that 1-2 weeks of rest could refresh my mental state and spirit.
The key is treating this skill maintenance as one of the sabbatical goals that needs to be mixed with rest and entertainment, not as a burden or pressure. With this approach, I could ensure my skills stayed sharp without sacrificing my other sabbatical goals.
Seizing Opportunities
As my sabbatical progressed, I started thinking about preparing my "weapons" for eventually returning to work. I wanted to make sure I'd be ready for opportunities that might come up near the end of my break.
I spent time updating my resume, portfolio, connections, and online presence. The idea was to be prepared early, so I wouldn't need to rush when interesting opportunities came up. It's like the saying "dressed for your future" — just getting ready for what's ahead.
This preparation helped me feel more confident about the future and kept me focused during my sabbatical. It reminded me that while this break was definitely about rest, it was also a chance to grow and prepare for whatever might come next in my career.
Closing
This sabbatical has taught me many valuable lessons. I learned that "you are not your work"; I am my own unique self with various aspects of life beyond work. Separating self-identity from work became essential as it allowed me to maintain happiness, regardless of career fluctuations.
When I loosened the connection between identity and work, I became more resilient to work stress, more adaptable to career changes, and could enjoy life more fully. For instance, I could better appreciate free time for developing hobbies, building personal relationships, or contributing to communities without feeling guilty or unproductive.
One important realization was about "stay small enough long enough" — keeping a modest lifestyle (relatively small), because needs will naturally increase (go big) over time, especially when starting a family later.
I found that having some plan and structure helps, even though it's not always easy to stick to them. What really matters is trying your best to follow through with what you've planned. Along the way, I learned about "dressing for the future" — simply taking small steps to prepare for what's ahead. I tried to save a little extra of everything — some money, energy, and time — just to be ready when opportunities come up.
Another valuable lesson was about productivity: it's okay to have moments when you're not being productive. Taking time to rest is just as important as working hard. Mental burnout is like when athletes get injured — it's a normal part of the journey. Just like how I wouldn't expect an injured athlete to keep playing, I also need to take a break, get help, seek treatment, and give myself time to recover and bounce back.
This analogy opened my eyes to my relationship with work. I realized I'm like an "athlete" working for a "team". Like professional athletes, I need to take care of my mental and physical health and know when to rest. This perspective also helped me understand something else — while I value my work relationships, an office isn't quite the same as family. Even with close relationships with colleagues, it's still a professional environment where we work together as a team. I've come to appreciate workplaces that focus on building professional relationships based on mutual respect, rather than calling themselves a family.
During this break, I had more time to spend with my family. These moments helped me see how special they are — that beyond any job or career, they're the ones who are always there. This whole experience taught me a lot about finding balance in life, growing as a person, taking care of myself, and cherishing family time. I hope to carry these simple but meaningful lessons with me as I continue my journey, both in work and in life.