Today marks the first day of my three month long sabbatical from Automattic. This is a benefit that you get after every 5 years at the company. I will have been there eleven years in early December and so it’s time to take my second one.

I just got back from a week long division meetup with my WooCommerce colleagues and everyone kept asking what I was going to do during my time off and here’s was my consistent answer:

I have about 90 projects that are 90% done and I’d like to finish off them all during my sabbatical

Some of the things are the list are:

• Finish basement (baseboard trim, caulking, touch-up painting, kitchenette backsplash)
• Build a cold plunge
• Finish up my work bench build in my garage
• Create an interesting decorative wall for a Zoom background
• General clean-up and organization around the house
• Computer clean-up and organization (think properly file things, delete unnecessary files, etc)
• Website projects (rebuild a couple of sites, switch to a different eLearning platform, make the sites easier to checkout)
• Board and batten a wall in the master bedroom

Plus, there will be lots of family time things happening during my time off:

• Wrapping up fall sports games
• Trunk or treat
• Week in FL for fall break
• A gazillion Christmas parties/events
• Coaching the second grade basketball team

This first week is all about planning and figuring out what supplies I need and coming up with a game plan for the three months. Then next week, start working on the house projects!