Mini Retirements: The Tiny Sabbaticals That Spark Big Ideas
Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller
Taking a break doesn't have to mean months off. Mini retirements—short, intentional pauses after school, job changes, or whenever you need a reset—can unlock creativity and clarity. Drawing on insights from Austin Kleon, Steve Jobs, and entrepreneurs like DHH, this piece argues that stepping back, even for a daily walk, helps you connect the dots of your life and career. Discover how small respites can lead to major breakthroughs.
You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.
- jawns
Here in the U.S., the idea of taking even a few weeks off between jobs as a way to refresh oneself is a real luxury because of the way health insurance is tied to employment.
I have wanted to do this each time I've left a job, but a lapse in health insurance would have been too risky for my family, and COBRA is too expensive to be anything other than an option of last resort. So, the most time I've had between jobs over the past 25 years has been a couple of days.
If health care were not so tightly tied to one's employer, I could see people saving up and taking a few months off every 3-5 years as they change jobs. For me, a summer off with my kids would be a tremendous joy. But I don't think I'd be able to afford it until I retire, and by then my kids will be all grown up.
- grim_io
Is this some weird american way of describing a vacation?
- kenanfyi
Great idea! I have micro retirements every year for 30 days. My company calls it vacation, but micro retirement is a better term I like.
Even more than that, I have nano retirements every now and then. We call them holidays. What a lame term, I know.
- nemomarx
So like a vacation? I'm wondering why retirement is a good term for this. A sabbatical is already a break that's smaller than a retirement, and this is shorter than that. A 3 month gap between jobs is kinda just taking a break.
A label might help explain it on resumes if anyone is checking for gaps though of course.
- cushychicken
I did this in the summer of 2019. My girlfriend and I lived in her Subaru for the summer, and drove across the country visiting a bunch of national parks.
Writeup here: https://cushychicken.github.io/leave-of-absence/
We had a ton of fun doing it. I loved it. A lot of why I loved it was because it reaffirmed how much I love my work.
I want to do something similar in my late 30s / early 40s, now that my girlfriend is now my wife, and we're starting a family together.