focusing on one thing at a time
on time-boxing your life, self-funding your sabbatical, and investing in yourself
📍Where is coriils? Was in Mexico City, Vancouver, disconnected for two weeks in Desolation Sound 🌊, Toronto. Now at the airport lounge en route to Hong Kong.
Time is not (all) money, time is yours.
In 2022, I was running around and multitasking my life in pursuit of a full life. I filled it with social activities in the city, snowboarding and bouldering, travelling and road trips, family time at home, and of course, full-time employment. I’m categorizing these, the main ways I spend my time, into 4 time categories: professional development, personal relationships, fitness & movement, and exploration.
After uprooting my life in November 2022, I have slowed down my life, by removing the hecticness of fitting all 4 categories into a day, and roughly focusing specific months on a category at a time. January and February 2023 were fitness with a side of exploration, when I taught snowboarding in Japan. March 2023 was exploration. April 2023 was professional development, where I split my time between TED and New_ Public. May and June 2023 were personal relationships, returning home for the first time since the year started. July 2023 was fitness then exploration, hiking the dolomites, then continuing through Italy and Switzerland. August 2023 was personal relationships, spent back home again. September and October 2023 were an even split, with alternating weeks of exploration, fitness & movement, and professional development and doses of personal relationships — finally, all four.
It sounds like I’m returning to the pace of 2022 but in fact, I haven’t been this relaxed and productive all year. I’ve realized that going on long stretches of back-to-back travel (i.e. exploration), requires so much planning both before and during that when happening for more than 2 weeks, it starts to feel like the energy requirements of a full-time job. Not complaining, but noticing that I would benefit from complementing two weeks of travel with two weeks of a slower pace, whether for professional pursuits or writing or something different.
Each day of September and October essentially had 1 prioritized time category. Other than the days I spent in Mexico City for exploration and the days I spent kayaking off the coast of Vancouver Island for fitness & movement, I wake up each day deciding if my focus will be on personal relationships or professional development. The former is where I put in my energy towards socializing, connecting with others and the city, and directing myself outwards. The latter is where I hone inwards, on developing new skills, propelling personal projects, and planning potential pursuits.
To others, it can seem like I simply have nothing to do. But when you have a plan for your self-inflicted sabbatical and an ever-growing backlog of personal projects, deciding how to spend your time is more about recognizing where your instantaneous inspiration is rather than finding your energy and time — essentially, optimizing how you spend your ample amount of time based on how you’re feeling that day. I’m feeling really thankful for my past self for saving enough money for me to be doing this right now. It’s extremely freeing and sets up the right conditions for figuring out what a life on the pathless path could be like.
Time is not (all) yours, time is rooted in society.
October has been incredibly fulfilling — chasing strong feelings and waking up with the intention to do what feels most matched to my energy that day on my to-do list. (Note: my to-do list is expansive, not just life admin or job search tasks but also taking walks, reading, getting bubble tea, and seeing friends.) (Side note: I use Todoist for both timely tasks and non-timely planning.)
I’ve also learned that blocking out rest days before and after a trip has been significantly impactful to maintaining the organized and rejuvenating approach I have towards life and throughout travel. I’ve shifted my mindset from hourly planning to daily and weekly planning, allowing myself the freedom to ask myself how I’d like to spend the next hour when the hour comes. Last year, I time-boxed my life in hours out of necessity. Weekday evenings were open to three commitments max — happy hour time, dinner time, and drinks/dessert time. Sometimes, two blocks would be for socializing. Sometimes, one block would be for a massage, one for socializing, and one for wrapping up work. Often times, I would fall asleep immediately after only to do it all again after another day of work.
When I had a job, I wished I had more free time and filled my daydreams with the fantasy of uprooting my life. When I quit my job and had all the free time in the world, I felt some emptiness without a job. Turns out, I’m not immune to the societal pressure to be on society’s cadence. It’s a cycle of conflict — then being distracted and using that beloved free time to find a new job. It’s been helpful to commit to professional-adjacent endeavours like taking a GIS course, signing up (then withdrawing) from Write of Passage, making time for an Outward Bound Training Academy course. All of these are flexible and are professionally and personally rewarding — which is all I could ask for in terms of alignment.
However, this year of reset was made possible due to three years of working full-time, a fast career progression, and living at home during covid. I didn’t intentionally save for this break but I think it’s a worthwhile things to save for. Self-funding my sabbatical / career break has shifted my shopping habits (less impulsive) and the way I see vacation time (not only valuable when you’re paid for it on PTO). I’m a big fan.
I’m currently job searching with more intention and time than I have all year, mostly because of my goal to be employed by January. It’s time and I feel like I know what I’m looking for. I’m maintaining high standards for the next endeavour so I can maintain the flexibility I currently have while fitting professional pursuits back into my life. To me, professional pursuits that are flexible on working hours, PTO, and location is how I’m going to reclaim my time and energy — resulting in better work, and true balance. It’s how I’m going to live a modular life, and how I want 2024 to be — balanced not between work and life but in my time.
Time is all we have, spend it on yourself.
Live like it’s your birthday everyday — filling it up with satisfaction and wondrous hope for the year ahead.
One of my biggest accomplishments this year has been creating videos to capture my adventures. It’s a time capture of this time in my life and my reflections and preferences, and an artifact I'm excited to revisit at the convenience of a click. This one’s about my time in Niseko! Subscribe! Let me know what you think!
Cheerio to catching flights and feelings! Next posts: a March in Japan recap then hopefully a summer travel (Dolomites, Northern Italy, Switzerland) recap, both (hopefully) complete with a video, this newsletter, and travel recommendations! But also, maybe it’ll be more life thoughts hehe. Next stop: Hong Kong. Thanks for keeping up with me, tell me what you’re looking forward to in the last hoorah of 2023? (You can actually just reply to this email!)
Loved this! So relatable for me and provided a much needed mental reframing as I’m going through a similar sabbatical.
After graduating in Aug 2021 and working full time for two years (albeit with 2 months of leave without pay and a few paid vacations/explorations), I quit my job this August to write full-time, travel, and (hopefully) find more meaningful work I care deeply about.
But as you point out, it’s easy to fall victim to societal pressure while your thoughts run rampant (all my friends have a job, what is my future going to look like, am I even employable anymore!?). The intentionality with which you’re thinking about “life seasons” and the presence you’re cultivating through placing a specific focus on each month and time blocks throughout the day is something I’m going to bring into my own life.
Slowing down, intentionality, savouring exactly where you are in life, and as having some faith in the future sounds like the recipe for a purposeful and energizing sabbatical.
(Hopefully this was somewhat coherent... writing from the domestic terminal of EZE in Buenos Aires after waking up at 3:45 AM!)
Loved your film photos!!