I started Full Scope Creative back in 2010, and it wasn’t long before I was working 7 days a week. Between Full Scope, working at Schneider National in customer service, and teaching at NWTC, I was working pretty much non-stop. After a series of events in 2016, I realized I was completely burnt-out. Even though by then I was no longer working at Schneider or teaching, I was still working 7 days a week with Full Scope. In the first quarter of 2017, I was working a lot of 4 and 5 day weeks to get recharged.
After about 3 months of that schedule, I started to feel charged up and ready to tackle the world once more – but I was afraid of getting burnt-out yet again. One Sunday morning at church, I was talking to the pastor after service and told him about my struggle. He then asked me when the last time was that I took a Sabbath.
A Sabbath is a 24 hour period of no work, and for many Christians is a day of rest and worship. For me, my Sabbath is usually comprised of church and worship, time spent reading the Bible, prayer, and other activities that I find restful and bring me closer to God. Yard work and cooking are very relaxing and enjoyable for me as well, so I don’t have an issue doing those activities on my Sabbath.
Whether it’s considered “cheating” or not is debatable, but I don’t always take my Sabbath on Sunday. While my Sabbath usually goes from about 4:00 on Saturday afternoon through 4:00 on Sunday afternoon, 6:00 on Friday night through 6:00 on Saturday night has happened a few times, including this weekend. (Sunday night is when I get a lot of my planning work done for the upcoming week.) Finding one day each week where I do no work is tough to find. But a Sabbath is more about a 24 hour period of resting from working for a livelihood, such as making websites, doing accounting, sales, or whatever else I might do for Full Scope Creative.
If you’re feeling burnt-out, whether you’re a Christian or not, I encourage you to take a Sabbath. For the first couple weeks it might feel a little odd – at first I could only make it about 16 hours before needing to work again – now I can easily go 24 hours or more focused on resting and relaxing. Man was not designed to work 24/7; take some time to relax, recharge, refresh, and then go back to taking on the world.