Well, that was excellent

Sat, 29 Dec 2018

Wrote this on September 3rd, then got so busy I forgot to post it:

I just returned to my desk after my first Adobe sabbatical — four weeks' time off for having worked at Adobe for five years. Along with the standard, two-week vacation time and our one-week company shutdown in July, that makes a total of seven weeks' vacation this year. The winter holidays ahead will make it eight.

What an incredible privilege it has been, and is! This amount of paid leave is life-changing. In 2018, Eileen and I took the kids on a vacation and two camping trips, we reorganized 10 years of basement clutter (making our house 50% bigger), and we spent lots of time with extended family. I also read a few books, did some cooking, and generally took my mind off work for a while.

Now that I’m back at work, I feel supercharged. The peace of mind I gained from all my time off has made me feel very focused, and my fresh eyes have made it easier to see all the moving pieces in projects. I feel unstoppable.

Whoever decided that Adobe should offer paid sabbaticals, company shutdown weeks, and other generous time-off opportunities was very smart.

As I publish this, I'm in the middle of that winter break I mentioned. The focused, unstoppable feeling I had back in September never went away. I spent the fall months learning from people all across this giant company, collaborating on strategy, and designing new typographic tools. 2019 is going to be fun.

Until then, though, I’ll continue playing Minecraft with my two older girls and reading books to my youngest — if I must! 🥰