Welcome back to my sabbatical planning guide! In this part, I'll share the practical considerations that often get overlooked in sabbatical planning. These are lessons I learned the hard way through my three sabbaticals (2014, 2019, 2025).
Taking a sabbatical can be one of the most transformative experiences in your career, but it requires careful planning and financial preparation. After successfully implementing my own self-funded sabbatical (which is currently ongoing!), I want to share the practical steps that helped me turn this dream into reality.
Some of you may know that I have been taking courses and apprenticeships on digital marketing for the past year. I had been working on digital campaigns and social media management on my most recent project at the UN.
If you know me, this isn't my first sabbatical - I'm currently on my second one. The first time I took a career break --though I did plan it out to a certain extent-- it was whimsical and all happened almost accidentally.
My YouTube channel is finally live!
In my last post I discussed my creative endeavors, and one of them is video editing. I'm finally excited to launch my YouTube channel, featuring unique travel content in Japanese with English subtitles.
Stuck in a creative rut after years of corporate life? I was too. Here's how I went from creatively burned out to inspired again, plus practical tips for busy professionals who can't take a career break but refuse to let their creativity die.
Why do you still feel disconnected from loved ones despite seeing them regularly? Why does having more free time doesn't automatically improve relationships?
After years of intense work, taking a sabbatical seemed like a dream—leisurely mornings, yoga, painting, and spontaneous café visits. The reality proved far more challenging. after decades of high-speed productivity, slowing down is genuinely difficult. It's like trying to brake while going full speed downhill. The ingrained habits of constant motion and guilt around rest don't disappear overnight.
As many of you may already know, I decided to leave my job at the UN on January 31. For one thing, the project I was part of since 2018 was set to end in January after a 6-year run.…
Coming from California where there is ample sun (even in San Francisco, known as the foggy city) and being Asian where we evade the sun at all costs, I never understood how Europeans could bake in the sun for hours…
