The Power of Time Off

How many of you have ever considered walking away from your job for some time off? Did you feel guilty or selfish? Did you follow through? Do you think it’s even feasible? Do you base your self worth on your career or job satisfaction/existence / quality?

In his TED talk “The Power of Time Off” Stefan Sagmeister discusses how taking a year off every 7 years inspirited his work and rejuvenated his soul. Put simply he decided to take 5 of his retirement years and disperse them through out his working years rather than save them to the end. His projects and creativity was enhanced by this act, and he felt his quality of life was improved. The TED talk discusses the resulting project in detail.

Inspired by this talk artist Cesar Kuriyama saved over two years and took a year off from work. While doing so, he created a video project titled “One Second Everyday”, discussed in this CNN article. He stressed that the project, and the year off, helped him to discover how he lives his live and the importance of remembering even the little moments.

We often grow up being told to take little time for ourselves, to always be self-sacrificing and dedicated towards others. For social workers, this is likely even more true and we probably feel selfish even when taking a sick day. But, maybe as the above two men might prove, it isn’t selfish to give some time to ourselves, to take a break. Considering other countries have more time off per year maybe there is something to this, especially considering other countries are often considered happier and more productive than the american population and work force.

If there is one message to take away from the above it’s that we need to remember to take time for ourselves, to not burn out, and to remember to take time to remember. Even the smallest of things are worthy of recognition and remembering. We can do so by journaling, photographing, or videoing but we must not let this act get in our way of reality. We can help ourselves, and help others, by feeling rejuvenated and passionate, by remembering our lives and passing this information on. And maybe, just maybe, we will move towards an era where we can work for what we love rather than a walk. And if not, at least we got a year long vacation out of the deal.