[hesdeadjim]

I hit a really bad burnout four years ago and after reading about peoples’ experience with sabbaticals I took three months off unpaid.

I spent the first month of that trying to “figure things out” until my girlfriend got sick of me and suggested I just try and have some fun. That’s what I did for the last two months and, surprise, the burnout went away and my passion returned.

Depending on how bad your burnout is you may need more or less time off. But after much reading the consensus seemed to be that three months is the bare minimum.

Edit:

I should mention that for the “having fun” part I went out of my way to try new things, travel a bit, and basically do my best to disrupt any ruts I had built for myself.

[zapperdapper]

Would agree with this. Also agree 3 months is the minimum should be thinking of for a sabbatical.

There's a good book on this topic called Play It Away by Charlie Hoehn.

[techexecadvice]

Thanks. Were you worried you'd come back and quit after making such a big ask of 3 months off?

[hesdeadjim]

Yes, definitely. But at least if that happened I would know it was the right thing to do and not be stuck in that hellish cycle of “what if”.