Journal of Many-sized Tales
Sabbatical Goals that Include More Work. I Am Excited.
I’m taking a work sabbatical from mid-July through mid-October. But “work sabbatical” is a strong phrase.
I helped create a sabbatical benefit with the company I work for, and I am using the benefit mid-July through mid-October. I was the sixth hire and have been at the company almost nine years. Contributing to growing the business and devoting myself to learn as much as I could—customer experience, business development, coding, design, and so on—I put most of my mental and physical energy into the job. I love the work, the learning, the chance to collaborate with intelligent, empathetic, and creative teammates. I love the work, but I also love my personal life that I’ve neglected.
My company encourages vacation and time off—we’re a travel company, after all—but I can find it difficult to carve out time for life outside of work. No one at my job asks this of me. I love making things, and almost every day I can see how my projects help travelers and teammates. That drives me. However, my personal work, health, and relationships drive me too, and I want to invest more time in those going forward.
So I am taking a sabbatical from work to focus on personal interests and necessities. A big part of this will be concentrating on my health each day, as I have been dealing with chronic pain from various stresses for close to two years. I also plan to travel a little, heading to Scotland for a wedding, driving up to the Northwoods to see family, and potentially taking another short trip.
The other big part of the sabbatical will be for my personal projects. I will sit at my desk—or a desk or couch or log somewhere in the world—and make things most weekdays from 9–5, and I am excited. Mostly I’ll be writing, but I have a design idea or two I would like to explore. I am a week into the sabbatical, and I used that time to get a baseline for how much I can accomplish in three months. I set goals and timelines around what I learned, which I’ll share here to hold myself accountable. I’ll also post updates about progress and adjust the priorities as needed, since unexpected challenges or opportunities may pop up; I prefer not to be rigid, and mainly want to make things that I care about, and hopefully others will end up caring about them too.
Without further ado, my sabbatical goals in order of priority:
Finish L’ve novel manuscript edits and send to agents.
July 15 – September 15
Edit my picture book manuscript, Dream, Children, and send to agents.
July 15 – September 15
Research and likely launch a small lifestyle brand.
July 15 – September 15
Write the first draft of the next novel manuscript.
September 1 – September 30
Write a comic book script for the Top Cow Talent Hunt.
September 15 – October 15
Launch a newsletter for my website.
October 1 – October 15
Research and apply to writing grants for 2023.
October 1 – October 15
Write a picture manuscript for my friend to draw.
October 15 – October 30
Connect with writers on Twitter.
July 15 – weekly afterward
Continue sending stories already out in the wild.
September 1 – weekly afterward
Bonus, if time: either edit my middle grade novel manuscript or complete the Writer’s of the Future Fiction class and write a story to go with it.
You Should Be Free to Care for Your Health
When your health is at risk, not knowing how and where to seek care can make creating, even just living, a struggle.
I’m writing an article about star ratings and creating designs. This week, I had planned to share links to interesting resources I found, while researching the topic, but with Roe v. Wade being overturned, I’m sharing five abortion healthcare resources instead. When your health is at risk, not knowing how and where to seek care can make creating, just living, a struggle.
While this journal entry in my little corner of the Internet may not reach loads of people, even posting the links can improve the SEO for each site; every little bit helps. And remember, one of the most powerful ways to fight for your rights is to vote and promote voting.
No one should control your body, your health, but you.
“A network of grassroots orgs building power to remove financial, logistical, cultural and political barriers to abortion access.”
Helmsinki the Abortion Link Fairy on Twitter
She gathers links to resources and shares them for one and all.
“Plan C provides up-to-date information on how people in the U.S. are accessing at-home abortion pill options online.”
“Your health is our highest priority and we believe your body is your own.” They will answer any questions you have about “new laws that change how and where you can get safe, legal abortions.”
“The mission of the National Abortion Federation is to unite, represent, serve, and support abortion providers in delivering patient-centered, evidence-based care.”