I took a one month sabbatical

I recently took an entire month off from work, for many reasons. Mainly, I was feeling really burnt out and the only solution I could think of was to leave. I was fortunate enough to be offered another option: to take a temporary break from work.

Instead of counting down the days I had left before returning to work (like I normally would), I focused on making each day count. Here’s what I was up to:

A short getaway with Yibo

I’m thankful that we managed to get a few days away from the city to disconnect and just spend time with each other. It was a short, relaxing holiday at Montigo Resorts, Nongsa that I booked for Yibo’s birthday celebration. The resort was mostly empty the whole time, and we had so many photo opportunities hehe. It was a great start to my sabbatical and to kickstart my resolve to unplug from all work-related matters for the entire month.

Planned and initiated photoshoot collabs

I’ve always wanted to do more photoshoots and having this whole month without work was the perfect time for me to get planning. I dug deep into Pinterest and created multiple moodboards for concepts that I wanted to bring to life. I DM-ed a bunch of people on Instagram that I wanted to collaborate with, and I was thankful to have got a few replies! Glad I got to meet amazing people like Gladys and Rachell who agreed to come out to shoot with me, and we all had a great time. More of their photos to come on the blog soon!! Also follow me on my photography account to see what’s up!

Did lots of (audio) reading

I’ve started to get into audiobooks late last year when I got a free 2 month trial for Storytel. I haven’t looked back since! I’ve since listened to almost 15 books over the past few months, and about 5 over the past month. So proud of myself haha, since I’ve never been a big reader. I’ve read a mix of fiction, and inspiring self-help titles, which have been very life-changing (Consider ‘The Courage to be Disliked’ by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga). I get my best reading done while I’m editing hehe, and I’ve been doing a lot of that too!

Edited more travel vlogs

I love to capture everything and anything that happens when I’m travelling, the only downside being that I can’t edit all the footage as efficiently as I shoot them. So for many years now, I’ve accumulated a shit load of backlog from trips as long ago as 2017. It’s horrible, I know, and I’m trying to catch up! Most recently I’ve FINALLY completed my Canada 2017 series, which is up on Youtube 🙂 I’m now working on the family trip to Osaka/Kyoto in 2018. A lot of fun videos to come on Youtube, do subscribe and check it out when you can!

Tons of self-reflection and discovery

I’ve always used my full time job as an excuse to why I couldn’t find time to do a lot of other things – eg. expanding my photography side hustle, reading, editing videos. While on sabbatical, I had to come to terms with the number of excuses I’ve made up for far too long. I got reflecting, and had to accept that maybe I made all those excuses because it was easier believing that I simply had no time to do these things that I liked, instead of actually committing time to pursue them. I also had to be get comfortable having so much time with myself, with well, not very much to do. It was quite the formative month. I didn’t achieve nirvana or whatever, if that’s what you’re thinking. But I believe I’ve gotten a lot more clarity over the past month, than I have over the last year just trying to stay afloat amidst all the chaos.