Ask HN: Those who have taken extended time off, any advice?

At may last gig, I was super burnt out, it got to the point where I'd go into the office, but spend my time mostly dicking about. Maybe doing an hour of work in a day. After six months of that (and having no one actually notice, that was probably the worst part) I decided I couldn't take it and quit without a plan.

The first few weeks I did absolutely nothing but workout, read books, play video games, or just lay out in a hammock. But as soon as the stress started wearing off, I started feeling the itch to make things again. Because I didn't have anywhere to share what I was making, I ended up organizing a local meetup for Rust, which ended up getting me my current job doing shit that I love. Though when I accepted the offer I made my start date a few weeks out just to round my time off up to three months off. That was the happiest time of my life. I fully intend to take at least that much time off if I ever leave this job too. (Though I might even see if I can swing a three month long vacation/sabbatical without leaving once my project is released.)

My only advice: do it.

- "Try to take 3 months off maximum"

- "structure your time off"

- "Have goals and schedules"

- "Arrange ahead of time for a role to return to"

You are getting a very American perspective in this thread so far (possibly due to the time of day). I will counterbalance it.

Advice: You're overthinking it already. If you feel like a long break in between roles, take one. Book a one way ticket to a place you've always wanted to visit, and figure out your next steps once you get there. Many/most places in the world (including within the US) are very cheap to live if you don't need to live close to work.

Maybe you end up getting bored and returning to work in a few months, maybe you run out of money, maybe you love it and travel for a year or more, working hospitality jobs to get by. All of these are great outcomes, and you will learn something about yourself that would have been impossible to discover while heads down working full time employment.

COVID is a bit of hassle right now, but places are already opening up, and come summer you should have many more options.

I’m about 5 months into my first big break (after 10 years without one) and I didn’t really start to recover until about 3 months in. I’m still not quite recovered but have recently started coding again, which I think is great progress.

Doing this during Covid sucks because it limits everything, but, I wouldn’t have done it otherwise too so I am a bit thankful.

I think the one biggest thing that’s been helpful is to set aside free time every day with nothing planned. Just let yourself get bored for a bit! It’s amazing!

Took 1.5 years off. As others have said -- got bored, was expensive, was worth it. I would take stock of your finances before you take time off and play out a few scenarios of how long you can afford to not work. I would also advise getting a therapist or another specific life-advisor person with whom you can have scheduled time to dish -- I found it invaluable to have someone with whom I could process the disconnect that came from being unemployed when most of my friends were still on the grind. I would also advise finding time-locked habits to ground you -- e.g., always going to a farmer's market on specific days, always going to a certain gym class or other meetup. Things that you commit to doing, which are somewhat social, where the schedule is out of your control.

I did not have many goal-style plans and have some regrets about things not done, but (shrug) I think that's all of life. In my mind it's not so important to have specific goals as to have broader intentions -- e.g., following your gut, or heart, or pursuing something that's been in the back of your mind for a while.

Good luck!

If you have the funds and you're certain you don't want to be at your current role, I couldn't recommend it more. It was perhaps the best thing I've ever done for myself. I came out of that period not only with a plethora of new skills, but with a greater understanding of my resilience and capability, a more refined understanding of what I wanted out of life that enabled me to choose a job rather than take whatever would put food on my table, and I also ended up with a deepened relationship with my loved ones.

I left a job of roughly 5 years with nothing lined up because the workplace was abusive and devastated my mental and physical health, and I felt I couldn't wait any more.

I was overconfident at how quickly I'd find another role and anticipated a max of 3 months unemployed. I quit shortly before the economic impact of the pandemic, so I wound up being off for 9 months between my old job and my current job.

The downsides were that I had to worry about my finances more, that my self-confidence took a temporary hit (I realized I tied my sense of self-worth to my employment), and that I constantly felt like I should be doing more.

The best preparation I made for myself, which echoes other comments here, was imposing the discipline of structure on myself, and giving myself actionable, manageable weekly goals to keep my forward sense of momentum going, even if that was something like "cook a dish I've never cooked before."

Edit: I would also add that it's important to manage your expectations. If you have a role to return to after, or if you know with certainty you will, this is less of a factor. If you don't, even in a great tech labor market, you should anticipate the possibility of not immediately landing the role you want and plan for that accordingly.