I am happily without a job right now.

In November 2024 I quit my job to have 12 months to travel and work on my own projects.

The problem with work

I have been thinking about work since a long time.

I've come to realize that working as a full-time employee takes too much of our life.

Work is always central, taking much more than the nominal 40 hours a week. It takes time to get ready for work, getting to the office, thinking about work, doing work, and always be ready to do it again the next day.

In exchange for a pay check, we are not just exchanging our time, but also our emotional and mental health.

To take the expenses are all the other areas of our life: health, relationships, and meaningful activities.

Experimenting with part-time

In the past I have tried reducing my working hours, but after a while I still didn't feel enough.

Then, since the beginning of this year, I tried working at my day job 3 days per week, instead of 5.

This would leave me 2 days a week to work on my own projects like PizzaGPT.

This sounds great, but in practice it was not.

Being employed in a very small company, I had always a ton on my plate.

This would include project management, regular meetings with customers and the rest of the team, implementing new features, fixing bugs, manage the deployments, release branches, release notes, make sure the infrastructure was healthy, answer emails, do support on Slack and Teams, and so on.

After the work days I would end up staying longer hours to catch up what needed to be done. At the end of the day I was feeling drained, and struggling to disconnect, thinking about work far longer than I would like. On my days off I would need time to recover and didn't have the energy to work on my projects.

Why I am doing what I am doing

I initially took this job, over a better paying one, for 3 reasons:

Flexibility: In a small company with a flat structure I had the possibility of having a flexible schedule.

Technology: Working in a software company with technologies that I like such as Javascript and Vue, I could advance my skills that would help me in my future projects.

Startup: You are not a clog in the machine but you have a chance to make an impact.

In the past years I learned a lot. Both on the technical side and how to manage customers. But after a while I realized I was not enjoying the work that much anymore.

A lot of it was routine work. A lot of it was reactive work.

I want to build things, not just take meetings.

The development work was squeezed in between answering customers. I could not do any deep or creative work.

The flexibility also was not that much, having to stick to the office hours to be available for the customers and without the freedom to work remotely all the time.

I felt I had exhausted the possibilities of what I could learn at this job. At some point I asked myself:

Why am I doing what I am doing?

I could not find a clear answer.

What would you do if money was not an issue?

I would travel and work on my own projects.

I was waiting for something to happen in the future. Postponing what I really wanted to do.

So why not now?

You are not alone

I felt wrong for a long time.

From the outside, it looks like I had everything. A good job, a nice flat, a girlfriend.

But still at the end of the day, I was not satisfied of what I did.

I was waiting for a future where I would have enough time and money to do what I really want.

I was telling myself was to wait for the right moment.

What opened my eyes was reading a note I wrote 6 months ago.

I was feeling exactly the same way. Frustrated, unmotivated, and not really enjoying my work.

I want to travel and work on my own projects.

I had to do something.

The decision

What help me a lot what figuring out that I am not the only one feeling this way.

There are people that need to carve their own path.

A great book about this is The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd.

Reading about other people and their experiences was very helpful. I friend of mine took 1 year break to travel to Asia.

I also joined a webinar hosted by a friend about taking a pause from work.

The moment I decided, was when reading a note I written 6 months ago, I was feeling exactly the same way.

I know I can give much more to the world, than what I am giving at my job.

I am curious and creative and don't like the routine.

Why are you doing what you are doing?

What is more important than living?

Freedom is important for me. Ability to choose what to do. Not limited to a 9-5 schedule and being constrined in an office.

Focus on health, lead an active life and follow what sparks joy. Be free.

Things to consider

Money was my biggest concern. I always tried to keep my burn rate low. Let's say I spend 2000 chf per month. In a year this would be 24000 chf. For a full year of freedom I think it's quite cheap.

After I taking the decision, I felt great. I am not waiting anymore, I am taking action. I am living.

The plan

I will travel for the next 4 months, Andalusia and Chile, Argentina and Colombia. Then I will come back home and see.

I want to follow my curiosity and work on what I find interesting.

I want to keep healthy and fit.

My dream is to keep the freedom and flexibility of working for myself for the long term. To do this I need to build something that can generate a stable income. Ideally via one of my projects. Alternatively with a job that allows me to work remotely and has a flexible schedule.

You too can do it

Ask yourself:

Why are you doing what you are doing?

Are you waiting for something to happen?

If this would be the last year of your life, what would you do?

If you are considering taking a sabbatical, I give you my permission to do it.

There is always time for work in the future.

There is only the present to be lived.

Resources

Some books I found useful:

• The Pathless Path - Paul Millerd
• Quando inizia la Felicita' - Gianluca Gotto
• It's Okay Not to Look for the Meaning of Life: A Zen Monk's Guide to Living Stress-Free One Day at a Time - Jikisai Minami