How to Take a Sabbatical Without Ruining Your Career ft. DJ DiDonna

How to fix burnout is something we find ourselves looking up all the time, mostly because we get completely buried in our daily routine and forget to breathe. On this episode of The Brilliant Podcast, I sat down with DJ DiDonna to figure out why a normal three-day weekend never feels like enough anymore, and we ended up hitting on a much better approach to work life balance. We got into the exact signs of burnout that I usually overlook in my own life, like how we treat ourselves like appliances that just need to plug into a wall for an hour instead of human beings who need real time to just mess around and play. DJ spent five years tracking people taking a sabbatical, and he walked me through how stepping away from your business can be a peak life experience instead of something that hurts your career. I used to be the ultimate functional workaholic who only took a break when my body completely quit on me and forced me into a sick day, so this conversation really changed how I view my schedule. We talked about handling career uncertainty when everything feels unpredictable, finding a way to get things done through mindful productivity, and how I am personally planning time off so I can stay sane. If you are trying to build a business or just trying to find some stress management techniques that make sense, this chat is going to help you figure out who you are when you aren't working. Drop a comment and let me know what you'd do if you had three months completely to yourself, and make sure to subscribe so you catch all our weekly chats.   ────────────────────────────────── Dennis “DJ” DiDonna teaches entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School and spends his career building organizations that help people. He started The Sabbatical Project to study the benefits of taking extended breaks from work, and his research has been featured in major places like The Atlantic and The Wall Street Journal. Before this, he cofounded a financial tech company that helped businesses in over 20 countries get $2B in funding before it was bought out. DJ holds an MBA from Harvard, loves the outdoors, and once walked a 900-mile journey in Japan.   Get his book Big Time Off: https://amzn.to/44xy1OI   Website: https://djdidonna.com/bioii/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djdidonna/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djdidonna/  https://youtu.be/CDlEWG34brw?si=0G7tq1o4NNI-kCPh