I saw an interesting video from the TED conference today. (TED hosts 'riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world').
Stefan Sagmeister, a New York designer takes a year off every 7 years. Haven't we all though of a sabbatical at some time? Here's the clever reasoning: Sagmeister figures we spend:
25 years learning
40 years gathering (perhaps: information, family, money, skills, experience) and
15 years in retirement.
He decided to deduct some of those 15 years from the end by retiring every few years, for just a year, to recharge and reflect. As he returns to work, he finds that everything he designs in some way came out of that year of time off. Additionally the result of the year off feeds back into the world, instead of becoming time only spent with a grandchild or two in later years.
If, like me, you can't exactly take a year off, we can at least take a weekend to slow down, unplug and do something creative. Even replacing an afternoon in your desk chair with an hour in a deck chair might be enough to recharge, at least for a while.
That's where you'll find me on this beautiful Spring day.
