My 12 month career break(through)

Why I’m taking a break and how I’m hoping to rekindle my ✨ spark ✨ for life.

A sabbatical, quarter-life crisis, temporary retirement, adult gap year, an escape… call it what you want — it's happening! For a whole year... or at least until my money runs out. That’s right, I am taking a break from startup life to focus on health, cherish time with family & friends and rekindle that missing ✨ spark ✨ in my life.

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My rollercoaster relationship with work

My last 3 years in a nutshell graph

I have a love-hate relationship with work.

3 years ago, I got my dream job at Eucalyptus. It was everything I ever wanted — early-stage startup, first product hire, consumer-focused, healthcare, great leadership. I was over the moon. After my first week, we entered lockdown. I felt so grateful to have a job I loved especially when the rest of the world seemed to be on fire. I dedicated all my energy to work. I mean, what else could I have focused on?

But then I went too deep — I couldn’t stop thinking about work. I was actively problem-solving in my sleep (I wish I remembered my solutions when I woke up!). I kept checking my Slack messages even though no one was messaging me. Unsurprisingly, that led me to serious health issues due to the stress (that I put on myself). Little did I know, that was the first of many rounds of burnout (“habitual burnout”, the experts call it).

Since then, I had so many ups and downs with my relationship with work: getting promoted to Head of Product, then realising that I didn’t enjoy it; becoming an individual contributor again which helped me find a bit of temporary joy. These ups and downs are a normal part of life. However, I found my self-worth and well-being were tied directly to how my day at work was. If something went wrong, it would ruin my whole week.

So I tried to diversify where my fulfilment came from — I tried to rekindle old hobbies, spend more time with family and friends and start side projects. The more I invested in my life outside of work, the more I enjoyed it and wish I had more time to do it all.

Then the redundancies happened.

Fortunately, I wasn’t affected by the layoffs but the whole experience made me reflect on my relationship with work and what’s really important. I have been working pretty hard for the last 10 years. Soon, I’ll have a family — another big thing I need to dedicate myself to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of what I’ve done with my career but I can’t help but ponder… who am I outside of work? WILL I BE A PRODUCT MANAGER FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE? 😱😱😱

So after a week of spiralling deep reflection, I decided to commit to taking an extended break to explore my passions, and hobbies to rekindle that ✨ spark ✨.

So, what are you going to do on your break?

My goal for the year is to “do all of the things to set myself up for a fulfilling and balanced life”. While I know what 'balanced' looks like, I don’t really know what 'fulfilling' looks like. That's why I have a three-phased plan to find out:

Yes, it’s a roadmap. You can take a girl out of product management but you can’t take product management out of the girl.

1. First 4 months: do a bit of everything — go through that “I’ve always wanted to do this list” and figure out what ✨ sparks joy ✨ in my life. I aim to do at least one project per week in different areas (such as gaming, art, writing, DIY and more) to test and learn what I like (or don’t like).

2. 2 months of travel: bit of a break and reflection time. Visit family in Singapore, do our belated honeymoon in Europe and Japan.

3. Last 6 months: hopefully by now, I know what that ✨ spark ✨ is and I’ll go deep and focus on that.

What you can expect from this newsletter

I will be documenting my career break every single week! Being on the theme of “do anything and everything”, you can expect content on a little bit of everything:

• Frameworks, exercises and templates (yes, on Notion) to help you make choices that lead you closer to a fulfilling life

• Learnings from projects that I do every week (one of my first projects is to attempt to get from rank 500 → 1000 in chess in one week)

• How you can apply product management principles and processes in your daily life

• Sharing things I find interesting and why (reviews on products, games, books, podcasts)

🚨🚨My next post is coming in just 2 days (Thursday)!! It will be about mastering your morning routine for mood and productivity, backed by neuroscience (and a bit of Buddhism). Make sure to subscribe and get it delivered directly into your inbox.

If there’s anything else you’d like me to write about, just reply to this email or leave a comment.