Sabbatical: Week One

November was a month of bad things. I was laid off. So was most of my team. We had another death in the family. I have feelings about all of that, but this is not the place for them - Instead, this is the place where I'm going to post weekly updates as I take a 6-9 months sabbatical, to help encourage myself to make it a period of positive change and growth, and not just sitting around doing nothing for half a year.

Therefore, the report on week one:

I broke my habit of getting online, checking messages, doing some work, writing some code, etc. I did none of that. I have a VR game half coded. I did not even turn on the headset or open an IDE this week. What I did instead:

• Set up a reading nook in our home, with the 4 antique chairs that have come from prior generations of our family. 
• Spent one big day out with my wife, doing all the Chistmas shopping at once.
• Played a lot of video games.
• Kept up on my exercise plan. (Now 3 weeks into it.)
• Read half of a book.

Now that I have spent a week not doing tech work, it feels refreshing. Maybe I'm burned out. Maybe I will recover and go back - or maybe not. But now is not the time to worry about that. Now is the time to enjoy having some time. This week's purpose was recovery from the past week/month/year/decade. Next week is for family. Future weeks will be productive.

But for now, the biggest achievement of week one was reading. It sounds simple, but it is really a big deal. Due to a nasty pile of injuries a decade or so ago, I only recently have been able to hold a book in front of my face. But I never quite had the right place to sit and read, so even though I could hold a book, it never felt good enough to read for more than a few minutes. So this new setup is meaningful. I have sat down to read almost every day this week, in chairs that have seen and supported four generations of my family. 

See the nook at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDPQUYzxR8c/