Hey, world. I took a four-week break during August and feel like the luckiest kid in the world. I want to tell you about it.
Benefit #1: I'm looking at my (work) world with new eyes. I didn't check email or think about the day-to-day for the entire time. It's like putting the first draft of a manuscript in a drawer for a year. You see things differently when you return to them after a break.
Benefit #2: I now have an opportunity to re-design my role. I was careful to put the people around me in positions where supporting my absence was sustainable. This took planning (~8 months for me) but it paid off, because now I have time to pick up new responsibilities.
Benefit #3: I'm healthier and have (hopefully) set in place new habits to continue that trend. Here's a graph of my "sleep budget". Also, I lost seven pounds and walked over a hundred miles. I'm less stressed, which has mostly stuck. 
Benefit #4: I have new ideas. Not-thinking about the day-to-day gave my brain some capacity to run background processes about the strategic bits, and I'm optimistic I'll be able to make good progress.
I'm grateful to work with a team (Pivotal R&D) that allowed me, nay *encouraged* me, to take a break.
There are things that were necessary to make this happen, and in no particular order, here they are:
Prerequisite #1: Work with high-empathy people who look out for you and encourage self-care. Pivotal is this kind of place.
Prerequisite #2: Plan ahead on how your responsibilities will be handled while you're gone. Set up the people around you to be successful. If you're a senior manager, this may involve promoting people. It most certainly requires a ton of realtime conversation.
Prerequisite #3: The willingness to give up some control, and trust in the people to whom you're delegating. You can't take vacation if you're worried about the *how* (i.e., the path) and not the *what* (i.e., the destination).
You need to be able to walk away from the details and let people find their own paths (or better, help them find their own paths).
One final note: I messed up pretty badly and put myself in a position where I badly needed this kind of a break. It's great to be able to take time off when you need it, but it would be better if you weren't in a position of needing it in the first place.
