Over the summer I completed Dr. Liz Delia’s five-day guided experience to sabbatical planning. It awesomely highlighted some important core values for me, while also confirming some things I knew I needed from my upcoming sabbatical. Below, I’ll detail what I found out for myself through the first 3 days. If you’re planning your sabbatical, go do this!
Day 1: Core Values
From a list of possible core values, I was tasked with first circling all the ones that resonated with me, then repeatedly whittling them down until I had just three.
My 3 core values:
Curiosity - This drives my daily life, and I think I should let it bring me to new places in sabbatical.
Freedom - This seems to me like the most obvious goal of sabbatical, but as something I also crave in my regular life, this is a good reminder to hold my sabbatical boundaries.
Well-being - We’re not always great at this in academia, and I know it’s crucial my sabbatical focuses on this above other metrics.
Day 2: Archetypes
This day involved more work, but resulted in me identifying my archetype(s):
My primary archetype: Restore
The Restore Sabbatical centers recovery, recalibration, and reconnection. Whether you’re healing from burnout or simply craving a slower, more relational day-to-day life, this sabbatical prioritizes well-being over output or checklists.
Secondary archetype: Immersion
This sabbatical is about stepping fully into a different environment, role, or way of living — geographically, professionally, or culturally. Rather than analyzing what’s next, you change your context and allow perspective, insight, or growth to emerge through lived experience.
These archetypes really capture what I was already intuitively feeling: In my year-long sabbatical, I need a semester to rest, recharge, restore. Then I need a semester to really let myself marinate in literature, theory, ideas.
Day 3: Ideal Sabbatical Day
The question is:
What would a single day look like?
What are you spending time doing?
How does the day feel?
Who are you spending time with, if anyone?
What does this day give you that you’re not getting right now?
This is where I start to get in trouble. I’ve done an exercise like this about my ideal day in general life, and I hit two obstacles: 1. My day only feels ideal if I get to every thing I like to do in a week in that one day; 2. I want to do everything in the morning, which would take several conflicting mornings. What I mean is that I want a slow morning of breakfast and coffee, but I also want to go out for a run first thing, but I also want to work on ideas right away while my brain is fresh. The ideal day is somehow full of everything and nothing. Goals and relaxation. Social events and solitude. Getting to be at home and getting to be out of the house. A solid plan and freedom.
This is one I still need to figure out, but I’m guessing it’s going to have something to do with those core values from Day 1…
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My posts are 100% human-written. Do what you will with AI, but it’s not generating my thoughts.
