From Web Worker Daily:The Future Of Work: “Taking a Sagmeister”

one of the most intriguing speakers at last month’s TEDGlobal 2009 was notorious graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister. …[who] made an impression with some striking observations on career sabbaticals.

Sagmeister illustrated a traditional career as a timeline comprising three distinct “eras:” learning, work and retirement, with each “era” roughly taking up a third of one’s lifetime; around twenty-five years each.

While a confident minority of people might take a traditional career sabbatical, Sagmeister keeps his perspective and his work fresh by taking periodic sabbaticals throughout his career to date. In essence, Sagmeister closes his studio every eighth year, interspersing some of his retirement years into his active working career. This new career timeline looked more like learning, work, retirement, work, retirement…and so on.

Returning from a sabbatical in Indonesia back in 2007, Sagmeister realized his work had a new clarity, vision and purpose and that his “job became a calling again.” Sagmeister felt his post-sabbatical work was stronger and edgier; his year out provided the insight, innovation and income for the following seven years. So what is his formula?

1. Talk to people who’ve taken sabbaticals about how and why they did it, and what they learned.
2. Add five years to your planned working life.
3. Intersperse those extra years into your career, taking a year off every seventh year.

Humorously, Daniel Pink himself decided to re-imagine “going on sabbatical” as “taking a Sagmeister”!

My own career, over the past 5 years, has been very non-traditional. I have worked in 4 states, in 4 different industries/environments, and 8 different companies – and run my own business. I have not had a “job” now since Septtember, 2008, and I have a very fresh outlook on what I want to do with the next few years (more on this next week).

What do you think of the idea of taking one year off every seven? How would it affect your productivity, your personal relationships? Leave a comment.