The Gift of Time

One of the benefits we offer our team members is that after five years of service to 5by5, you get a sabbatical. Not an extended vacation, but a real, month-long, shut-the-email-off sabbatical. We don’t want our people to get to the point where they are burned out. They deserve to spend time with family, travel for fun and unplug from the busy-ness of daily life.

Like many who have taken sabbaticals, I had an impressive list of goals I wanted to accomplish on mine. Because let's face it, there is some pressure to knock off at least a couple bucket-list items when given the rare gift of time. But there also were just so many things on my list that I would now have time for.

Not long into my sabbatical, I had to face a difficult reality. "Lack of time" had become an excuse for many things in my life. I would certainly exercise more, if I only had time. I'd read more… cook.... take up some new hobbies… be a better friend to others. There were so many things that I'd do with time. But oddly, when given time, those were not the choices I made. Maybe, just maybe, lack of time was a really convenient excuse for the things I chose not to do.

When I returned to work, I had failed at my list of goals, but I won the sabbatical. I have a greater appreciation for the fact that it's not about having time, but making time for things that matter most. I can say it was a fantastic sabbatical. By the end I was ready to come back and missed my work and teammates. And I know it takes constant rebalancing to be sure I don't use time as an excuse again.

I'm a big fan of uninterrupted time off. I think as leaders it makes us better and our teams stronger. So whether you have a sabbatical coming up or it’s extra time off around the holidays, I advise you start with killing the goals list you had in mind.  

Focus on what really matters most. Instead of being controlled by the urgent, take time to hone in on what’s most important. It may be that doing nothing, or just being with those you care about, is the very best thing you could do with your time off.