Constant Contact Labs Developer Blog

• Thoughts from Sabbatical Posted Wednesday, September 29, 2010 Dan Richards 0 Comments

  How does taking six weeks off and two months out of the office feel and how does it change or provoke our thoughts?  I’d like to share a few thoughts from my summer sabbatical.

  I had the very special opportunity to take an extended break this summer from work and from the day to day.  Our company allows employee’s who have been with the company for 10 years the opportunity to take a one month paid sabbatical (Thank you Constant Contact!). Combining this with some vacation time and some remote work, I was able to spend my entire summer on Cape Cod in Chatham, MA. I think the last time I had this much time off was back when I had just graduated college - which is longer than I care to think (or admit for that matter!). 

  Besides all the obvious fantastic things about having that much time off to rest, relax and re-charge, one thing really stood out for me that was less expected and much more truly appreciated.  I felt my brain shift.  It didn’t happen all at once and it wasn’t immediately obvious to me that it was happening, but it was real and it’s impact was profound.  What I felt was a clear change in my brain activity - I was thinking more creatively and differently as the summer went along. 

  Why was this?  I can attribute it to a variety of things: 

  - I was getting more sleep. 
  - I was waking up when I woke up, not to an alarm, so I was well rested.
  - I ate a lot of blueberries
  - I was living in a different location, so no home maintenance tasks to do or think about.
  - Cape Cod is a visually beautiful place.
  - I was running regularly.
  - I started playing my violin again.
  - My alcohol consumption went up.
  - I did a good amount of yoga
  - I had lot’s of visitors.
  - I ate a ton of seafood!

  I could go on, but I don’t think the answer to why my brain and thinking process felt different is attributable to any one of these reasons.  On the whole, I could only say that the combination of all of these things really made a difference.  My brain was activated with a variety of different activities, sites, sounds, smells, tastes and people.  And an activated brain is a brain that can think differently and which can see problems and situations from new angles and perspectives.

  So how do I take this back to the day-to-day life we lead?  How do I hold on to this experience and use it to improve our day-to-day lives and work?  Well, I am going to work at keeping my exercise up and I’ll work at keeping a greater variety of activities going on.  It’ll be hard to get that much sleep and all that home maintenance certainly piled up over the summer - so that’s gotta get done!  Most of all, I’ll try to avoid the regularity of life and keep things a bit different - and I can surely apply this to the Labs team here at Constant Contact and what we do and how we do things as well.  I believe a team benefits from change and less routine as well.  Maybe this a good practice for all teams to engage in - I’m not sure - but it feels like a good thing to do and see how it works out.

  Finally, I’ll keep eating lot’s of blueberries- I hear they are supposed to be good for you!

   

  The opinions expressed here represent those of the author and not those of Constant Contact, Inc. Read Blog Terms

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