Last Updated on August 18, 2026 by Bethany Wilinski
Taking time to reflect during sabbatical
One of the keys to a successful sabbatical is building in time to reflect on how things are going and adjusting or course-correcting as needed. I know it sounds like a drag (after all, it’s sabbatical!!!), but trust me, it’s worth it.
If you’re currently on sabbatical and haven’t done this yet, I recommend you plan to check in with yourself in the coming days. This blog post will show you exactly how to do that. If you’re in the planning stages, then this post will help you make a plan for checking in with yourself during your sabbatical.
Why reflection is critical to a successful sabbatical
As you look ahead to your sabbatical, it probably feels like you’ll have all the time in the world to do all the things you need to do. As motivated and productive academics, we often over-estimate how much we can accomplish during a stretch of time when we have fewer regular responsibilities.
It might be helpful here to think about what summer usually looks like for you. Do you ever start the summer feeling like you’re going to get EVERYTHING done? Fast-forward to late July and you haven’t written those 3 articles you were going to submit or updated your syllabus or finished that grant proposal. Around this time, you probably start feeling pretty stressed out and perhaps a sense of regret that you didn’t accomplish all that you thought you would over the summer.
The same can happen during a sabbatical. Heading into sabbatical, you see long, empty days ahead and assume you’ll accomplish much (perhaps more than you would in a normal semester!). Then, by the end of sabbatical, stress and regret set in when you realize you haven’t gotten everything on your to-do list done. Taking time to reflect regularly during sabbatical will enable you to adjust in the moment and avoid sabbatical regret.
Why you may not accomplish all you intend to during sabbatical
There are lots of reasons why many people don’t accomplish all they set out to do during a sabbatical. One explanation is simple: We often set unrealistic goals. Even under ideal conditions, if your goals for what you’ll accomplish during sabbatical aren’t realistic, you’ll struggle to get it all done.
Part of the reason our goals may be unrealistic is that we don’t account for constraints in our schedules. I always feel like I have a ton of time at the start of the summer, but when I block off vacations, my kids’ camp schedules, and other commitments, I realize I have less focused work time than I originally assumed. The same might be true of your sabbatical, especially if you have care giving responsibilities. Blocking off your existing commitments and constraints on a calendar can help give you a much better sense of how much work time you’ll actually have during your sabbatical.
Another thing that happens with sabbatical is that you may realize at the beginning of your sabbatical that you need more rest than you anticipated. I took a yearlong sabbatical, and I did no work for the first four months. I feel vulnerable admitting that, but I think it’s also important to say these things aloud. It took me that long to recover from burnout, exhaustion, and chronic stress. If I had tried to analyze data or write before I recovered, I don’t think I would have been effective. I realize that a yearlong sabbatical is a privilege, but I think even with a semester sabbatical it’s so important to build in adequate time for rest, whether that’s a few weeks at the start or days off each week. If you build in periods of rest and relaxation as you plan your sabbatical, you’ll be able to set more realistic goals for what you can accomplish during sabbatical, and you’ll also be better able to relax into those rest days or weeks knowing you have a solid plan in place.
Finally, life inevitably happens during sabbatical. Even the best plans will get thrown off course by things that come up unexpectedly, whether positive or negative. It’s important to be able to pivot and adjust to changes, but it can be hard to do that if you’re not taking time to reflect on and notice those changes.
How to make time for reflection so you can make adjustments
Now that we’ve considered what might change over the course of your sabbatical, it’s time to think about strategies you can use to notice changes and adjust your plan or goals.
The first thing I suggest you do is look at your calendar for sabbatical and schedule check-in meetings with yourself. If you have a semester-long sabbatical, schedule 3 check-ins. If you have a full year sabbatical, you may want to schedule 5 or 6. Put these on your calendar now and block off an hour for your check-in.
It’s impossible to know when things will come up and change or get in the way of your sabbatical plan, and you may need to check in at times other than these. However, putting regular check-in meetings on your calendar will remind you to pause and reflect. This will help you avoid getting to the end of your sabbatical and realizing you didn’t do what you thought you’d do and being filled with regret.
When your schedule tells you it’s time to pause and check-in with yourself, you can ask yourself a few questions that will help you gauge how things are going. For example:
What is going well right now? How can I make sure this continues?
What isn’t going as I thought it would? Why? What do I need to change in order to address this?
Have I encountered any unexpected changes or challenges on sabbatical so far? How did I address those changes or challenges? If I haven’t addressed those changes or challenges, what could I do to address them moving forward?
Am I using my time during sabbatical in the ways I thought I would? If not, why? What needs to change?
Looking at my goals for sabbatical, am I accomplishing what I hoped to accomplish? If not, what do I need to do differently? (hint: do your goals need to change?)
I encourage you to not only think about these questions, but to write down your responses and ideas for adjusting or course-correcting. I also encourage you to think holistically as you reflect.
How to think holistically about your sabbatical goals and progress
Here’s what I mean by thinking holistically: A sabbatical is a great time to finish projects or start new ones, but it’s also a time when you get to slow down and explore new daily rhythms. Hopefully before sabbatical began you spent some time thinking about your personal and professional goals for your sabbatical. As you reflect on how things are going during your sabbatical, you should think about all these goals—not just your professional goals. Let me give you an example.
You’re 5 weeks into a semester-long sabbatical and you pause to reflect. As you think about the prompts I outlined, you realize that you’re making great progress on your professional projects. You submitted one article, and you’re now focused on a grant application. You feel really good about the progress you’re making.
But then you remember that you had a goal of exercising regularly and spending an hour each afternoon reading a novel. You’ve been so productive with your work that you’ve pushed these goals aside.
How do you reclaim those personal goals and prioritize them?
I’m not suggesting you should feel badly about getting a lot of work done on sabbatical, but this would be a point when it’s important to ask whether those tangible work-related products are the only thing you want to come from your sabbatical.
If not, then this is the time to adjust.
How do make in the moment changes during your sabbatical
If any of your responses to the reflection prompts indicated that you need to change or adjust you can follow this process for each of those changes:
Ask, what needs to change?
Identify one small thing you can do tomorrow to help facilitate that change
As you plan for next week, what will you do differently to facilitate this adjustment?
Is there anyone you need to communicate with about this change? Who? What is your plan for communicating this?
If you’re currently nearing the end of your sabbatical, now is a great time to pause and reflect. There’s still time to make changes, if need be!
And if you feel like you need more support, please click on the link below to schedule a call with me. I’d love to hear about your sabbatical and help you figure out how best to move forward if things have gone sideways. You can learn more about my Sabbatical Rescue program here.