[lifthrasiir]

> I found it took me 3-4 months of absolutely nothing to not feel burnt out.

That seems a universal experience. And to be more clear, absolutely nothing to think about, because even a sabbatical wouldn't save you if you think about post-sabbatical matters.

I took a year of non-employment in 2022 after 7 1/2 years of working in the same big corp. My experience shows that it takes me 1 to 2 years until I start to feel burnt out and need something new to work on, and fortunately the company was able to provide such refresher on time (not necessarily at my request) but wasn't able to do this time. So I quit, and next 3--4 months were absolutely non-productive time for me. (I have a ton of side projects at any moment and I realized my burn-out from not being able to work on any of them.) But that followed by a very productive period without any frustration [1], and I was eventually energized enough at the end of 2022.

Sadly not everyone can't afford this, I know, but if you can, consider doing so too. A year should be enough to clear your mind and start anew again, assuming you don't have any other significant problem affecting your life.

[1] J40 https://github.com/lifthrasiir/j40 was mostly written in this period.

[barbariangrunge]

The thing that makes this so expensive isn’t just the 3-4 months, but the probably not having a job when you go back

[lifthrasiir]

Entirely correct, it's really unfortunate that this advice is not actionable for everyone. I was able to pull it off partly because I had enough saving and I lived alone.