Single Malt. Trust me on this 
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Really??? A teaspoon of water???
Try a nice single-malt while sitting next to a fire… at a lake… as the sun is setting.
Personally, I would include a good cigar too. This is meditation moment!
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…on a beach on the Isle of Islay.
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Yes, absolutely, very well known to open up the nose and flavor. You can try it yourself. Cook’s Illustrated ran a taste test that gave tasters increasing 1 tsp. increments of water per 1½-oz. sample of 80-proof whisky. Tasters were already able to discern more complex flavors and aromas after just 1 tsp., but most preferred the addition of 2 tsp. of water (which diluted the whisky to 65-proof, but also allowed them to appreciate the sweeter, fruity flavors in the liquor).
And always, always trust Ralfy:
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I haven’t figured out what I’ll actually do during sabbatical week. I’ll be staying home (with the rest of my family) but I think I can socially distance some boogie boarding and hikes. The challenge right now is figuring out how to plan to be off the radar for a week. I’m writing a post about it now for Friday publication but handling customer support email and legal client urgent matters will be a challenge. Right now it is all about planning that stuff so I can actually disconnect. Historically, that has been difficult for me.
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I posted this in the Focused episode 101 thread, but it’s also relevant here:
I really want to implore David to tell his clients beforehand that he’ll be inaccessible during his sabbatical week. That’s going to go over a lot better than if he has a client come to him with an “emergency” during that week and being surprised when David tells them he won’t get to the their urgent issue until the following week.
I think that the vast majority of his clients will understand, especially if David lets them know in advance. While there might be a few that aren’t understanding, one of the benefits of being a Free Agent is that you can choose who you decide to work for. David has already talked about how he’s selective about who he chooses to take on or continue as a client. Maybe going forward one of the criteria he uses to make those decisions needs to be “client is understanding about sabbaticals”.
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I have a dropper and I add water by the drop. Usually one. Maybe two unless we’re talking cask strength. Now I want to go on sabbatical too
A week!? That’s called a short break from work. Not a sabbatical.
From The Sabbatical Guide:
A typical sabbatical lasts between 3 months and 1 year with an average length around 21 weeks. The most common sabbatical is around the 12 week mark, with the overall average pushed up by those taking a more traditional sabbatical year. How long you decide to take is determined by what you want to do and the policies at your current workplace.
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I fella has got to start somewhere
It is really hard to break away self identity things. Also, I’m hoping to make this an every 7 week thing. Pretty sure clients don’t want to hear that from me every 7 weeks.
I think you might be surprised.
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First off I agree with @ChrisUpchurch be SURE to tell your clients you will be unavailable that week.
Then I’d work on the family. Can you at least carve out most of the day where you will isolate yourself in the MacSparky Cocoon of Solitude (no fortress being readily available) so you can do the things you are doing the mini-sabbatical for?
As to what to do. Personally I’d take a long hard look at where I am now. What am I doing that I love? What am I doing that I hate? Can I change any of that? if so how? Where I want to be in 1-3-5-10-20 years? What do I want the world to look like in 10-25-50-100-500 years from now? What do I consider most important for myself, my family, my community, my country and the world? I’d try writing my own obituary to focus on how I want to be remembered. I’d go through every idea and checklist I have on finding your purpose in life, your focus and anything else that interested me. Brainstorm and follow the rabbit trails that I identify and not worry about how to integrate it yet.
I’d also make time to just sit and read. I love to read and I typically read somewhere between 75-150 books a year. I’d love to knock off 8-10 more in a week just because I could.
I’d plan to have enough microwavable but healthy prepared food so that I wouldn’t have to spend any time doing basic cooking. So for a month or more I’d be making double batches of stuff and freezing it for use later. Sort of a mini version of what we do to get ready for lambing by having stuff we can eat quickly available at all times.
The nitty gritty is that I’d take my 3 panel white board and use it to play with the ideas and connections. Also pens, paper and my computers and iPad. Maybe my art stuff. I’d find a place to set it all up so I didn’t have to clean up at the end of the day. Take pictures of the white board if I run out of room or even buy some of the big poster size post-it note paper and tack it up everywhere.
Above all have fun.
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To ease into it why not try for a slightly longer time between breaks? Maybe once a quarter? You can tell your clients you are doing a quarterly business review or something if you feel they need a more businessy reason for taking time off.
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FWIW I write into my proposal for services periods where I’m off (length of time and what season, rather than actual dates) – in my case sadly not for sabbaticals, but to preserve the ability to take vacations that are tied to the timetable of my kids’ school.
Of course clients don’t read/register these paragraphs, but it is something to point to when the discussion about upcoming breaks in the project flow.
+1 A “seven-day sabbatical every seventh week” policy, or 42 on/7 off.
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One week is hardly a sabbatical. I always took at least one two week vacation a year because it required that amount of time to really recharge. Almost always traveled on vacation because I like to find new experiences and cultures.
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Yes, if you want to do it as originally envisioned [Leviticus (25:3-5)] you’ll need to work six years then take one off.
I’m with @glenthompson. This has nothing to do with biblical references, but with common use of the term. It’s a break. A couple days off work. A short vacation at best. Seems the term ‘sabbatical’ is only used here to make it sound more interesting.
Sure, you have to start somewhere. But don’t make it sound more interesting then it truly is.
Wishing @MacSparky a good week off and much of fun nonetheless. 
I think it would be good if people listened to the Sabbatical Episode of Focused (101) for the definition of Sabbatical that David is using. (One week off after 6 weeks of work.)
I don’t think there’s much insight to gain by discussing what qualifies or does not qualify as a sabbatical.
That said, here are my tips, as someone who works with Americans but tries to have European-style vacations sprinkled through the year:
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Communicate early and often. – While your hunch is that you don’t even want your clients to notice when you’re out, you cannot afford that. It is just a background radiation of being concerned that a client could notice or brings an important project during that week. It’s better to have them know and clearly communicate.
In your case I would start with a general email four weeks before the sabbatical that contains
- sabbatical dates – I would always list the three next ones, that give clients a way to put them in their calendars and plan ahead. I might even attach a calendar ICS file with the pre-planned sabbatical dates.
- your motivation – Why are you doing it, what are the benefits for the clients?
- what happens in emergencies – see below
- how work can be structured between your weeks off – When is happening what in each circle, how can clients plan ahead?
I would follow up 2 weeks and 1 week before the sabbatical and also create an auto-responder.
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Offer meetings before you leave for the sabbatical. – Schedule or offer to schedule meetings with all clients in the penultimate week before the sabbatical. That allows you to catch time sensitive issues and address them in the week before your leave. For everything non-time sensitive, schedule it to after your absence and communicate that to your clients. This will be reassuring.
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Create an emergency email address. – This sounds antithetical, but hear me out. Create an emergency@example.com email address that you communicate to your clients. Say you’re only reachable through this email in case of life/business threatening emergencies during that week. During the week, set an autoresponder on your regular email that says the same. That way people who are afraid to have a real emergency have a way to reach you, which is reassuring. And changing the email address or the need to send the email again to another address usually means that people don’t consider things to be emergencies in the end.
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Schedule time for catch-up. – When I return from a three week vacation, I usually schedule the next week for catch up. When you’re away for a week, maybe schedule Monday & Tuesday. Also communicate that. That way people who come up with “Emergencies” will probably say on Wednesdays “It’s ok if it is dealt with on Monday.”
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Don’t overthink it. – If an emergency comes in, and it really is one (it might need some push back and communication to get a common understanding between you and clients of what is an “emergency”), take the time, concentrate on making it go away, so you can return to your sabbatical. Issues happen and cutting a couple of hours out of your day is not too bad when you then can go back to sabbaticaling with a clear mind.
I hope that helps, @MacSparky, you deserve some sabbaticals 
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And who says people don’t have a sense of humor any more?
Kudos to starting. When I was in private practice, I blocked out 11a-1p every day as I began to take control back from the billable hour. It allowed me to run errands, go to lunch, and do things that were important to me. I guarded the time ruthlessly (even when Courts would try to set things during those times - which didn’t always work). I realize this doesn’t count as a sabbatical. But I want to encourage people that’s it’s 100% okay to take time for yourself (no matter how it’s broken down) and it’s 100% okay to be selfish in the enforcement of that time.
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