Brainstorms

Want to Accomplish More in Your Business? Take a Sabbatical

Counterintuitive though it may be, it could be the most valuable way you spend your time this year.

Published

1 month ago

April 9, 2024

INSTORE Staff Instore April 2024 Issue

PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO

Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York design studio for a year-long sabbatical. As he explains in a TED talk, with each sabbatical, he pursues “little experiments, things that are always difficult to accomplish during the regular working year.” The effect on Sagmeister’s studio has been profound. “Basically, everything we’ve done in the seven years following the first sabbatical came out of the thinking of that one single year,” he says. Don’t think you can take a year-long sabbatical? Schedule more time away from the office for open-sky thinking in the woods or at the beach. It may possibly be the most productive thing you do all quarter.

She Wanted to Spend More Time with Her Kids. She Called Wilkerson.

Your children are precious. More precious than gold? Absolutely! Just ask Lesley Ann Davis, owner of Lesley Ann Jewels, an independent jewelry store that — until the end of 2023 — had quite a following in Houston, Texas. To spend more time with her four sons, all in high school, she decided to close her store. Luckily, she was familiar with Wilkerson and called them as soon as she knew she wanted to move on to bigger, better and more family-focused things. Was she happy with her decision? Yes, she was. Says Davis, “Any owner looking to make that life change, looking to retire, looking to close, looking for a pause in their career, I would recommend Wilkerson. Hands down!”