3D Artist Sabbaticals and Career Breaks: Stefan Sagmeister and the Power of Time Off

We all know the feeling of exhaustion that comes from working long hours on a project day in and out.  Weeks of crunch time turn into months and before you know it you have been working a crunch schedule most of the year.  The VFX and video game industries are becoming synonymous with working overtime for no pay (but that is a whole separate blog article).  These kinds of working environments many times can bring the best out of artists, but then they burnout.  When recently writing about burnout I briefly mentioned taking a sabbatical as a solution.  Sabbaticals can have incredible long lasting effects for an artist’s focus, creativity, and ambition through a combination of rest and personal discovery.

What is a sabbatical?  Sabbatical is a term that originates from religion.  Sabbath, literally a “ceasing”, is a rest from work, or a break, often lasting from two months to a year.  Biblically speaking there is a commandment to stop working the fields in the seventh year (Leviticus 25).  In more modern times a sabbatical is an extended break from an individual’s career with a clear goal to achieve something.  For some people the goal is to write a book, to complete research, go on an extended travel, or volunteer for an organization.

It is interesting to me that the there is reference in the Bible to not work the fields in the seventh year, because it was from Austrian graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister who I first learned about sabbaticals, or career breaks, from.  It is interesting to me for two reasons.  First, it shows the idea of sabbaticals is not a new one.  Second, coincidentally or not, Stefan Sagmeister takes one year off every seven years.  He closes his graphic design company for a full year and begins a new sabbatical of rejuvenation and discovery.  While watching Stefan Sagmeister’s TED talk about the power of time off I found myself thinking that a sabbatical sounds like something only wealthy company owners can afford, but as the talk went on and I researched further I found it may actually cost more NOT to take a sabbatical.

Stefan shows that generally people spend the first twenty-five years of their life in a state of learning, followed by around forty years of working, and finally ended with an average of fifteen years in retirement.  Sagmeister’s concept is simply to take five of those retirement years that are at the end and spread them out evenly throughout the working period of your life.  This does push your retirement age back by five years, but in return you are given a year of time every seven years during the working part of your life to rejuvenate and restore your passions and lost focus.  Stefan has found that his one year sabbatical provides the stimulus of creative inspiration that the next seven years of work all build off of.  In turn his clients get creative work that doesn’t get stagnant, or seem rehashed and overdone, and therefore the sabbatical becomes both practically and profitably beneficial to the company.

There are things that are key to taking successful sabbaticals.  There must be structure to the sabbatical.  Figure out what your project is before hand.  Are you going to volunteer in a 3^rd world country building wells and homes?  Are you going to attend some classes that you have wanted to take?  Do you have an idea for a personal video game project that you have wanted to create but just can’t find the time to really make any progress?  Or could it be that you have always had a passion for dolphins and would like to go to the Bahamas to help Dr. Denise Herzing discover the language of dolphins.  Many people suggest a change of environment for a sabbatical.  Surrounding yourself with a completely different environment engages all the senses in change and helps the body and mind regain excitement and vigor for life and work.  There are options available like house exchanges, and some that are even set up exactly for people taking sabbaticals (more academic for this site).

For volunteering there are organizations like the International Volunteer Programs Association, and for locally in the United States Volunteer Match is an organization which can answer any volunteer questions people have.  Whether volunteering, going through some training, or writing a book, the options for what you do on a sabbatical are endless, the important part is to use the time to be productive and accomplish things that you want to.  If you want to know if taking a sabbatical is a good idea, find someone who has taken one, and ask them about their experience.  It is hard to find someone who has had a bad sabbatical experience, and I highly recommend to anyone who is feeling unmotivated, creatively drained and burned out to look at the possibility of a sabbatical.