Menopause & Async Sabbaticals: recovery via smarter work

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???? Writing this from France on a Countryside Housesitting FarmStay

Context: After getting some private DM’s and requests to know more about my “async sabbatical” posts, I decided to share some personal writing on the why’s and how’s of how I got to where I am now.....

Which is back from the brink of a menopause induced burnout, with more energy, feeling better due to having taken decent recovery time and with some control over my menopause symptoms with hormonal supplements*, it is only now, that I can share honestly on this, from the benefit of hindsight and perspective.

Pause was not enough, I had to STOP to recover from my Menopause

From January to March 2024, I took a three month sabbatical from work and running my remote RoRemote solopreneur business. It was not a decision taken lightly, but I was exhausted, fatigued and on the brink of not only burnout, but also considering stopping work completely.

Why?

Did you know: One in ten people will quit work due to Menopause symptoms, a survey revealed.

I have 51 years of age and am about 4 years into my experience of Menopause.

However, after 4 years of symptoms, everything to do with work was too hard, too challenging, too exhausting and too much for my menopausal weary body, mind and soul.

Although Menopause awareness is building, very little is spoken about is the cumulative impact of the symptoms of menopause, especially symptoms that last more than a couple of years and may be accented by stress plus negative environmental factors - like a stressful global pandemic!

Stress rose high near the start of my Menopause experience, with the pandemic occurring mid my hormonal shifts and chaos. Stress is a huge negative factor any hormone instability and is like pouring salt onto a wound, making everything worse!

Nobody was left untouched by the pandemic and I truly believe the majority of us were impacted emotionally more than we realise, which has impacted our focus, fortitude and ability to work, regardless of their job or career. Much of my workshop facilitation work involved hearing people share about their pandemic overwhelm and need to recover, so I was reminded regularly of it's impact.

One thing that made me hesitate to press a full and hard stop on work was fear.

I don't have one employer or would have any paid leave, as a solopreneur, if I don't work, I don't get paid. So any break would need to be funded by savings and that induced fear.

Being afraid that what I had recently built from nothing over 6 years - my business, my clients, my audience, my life of WFA freedom - would be at risk also made me hesitate.

As a remote first entrepreneur, I had strived for a better non-location-tethered life for myself and my family, so if I stopped would I lose it all?

Someone wiser than me, once said:

"Everything we do in life comes down to love or fear"

When I realised that my work was important, my life-force and health was more vital. I valued and love it more than the work I do in life - work is something I do - but not who I am fully.

So how could I be the whole, fruitful and well person, without my health?

I made the decision to stop back in November 2023 for Q1 2024, 3 months in total of a sabbatical and put the plan into action over December 2023..

What I wish I knew earlier about Menopause

With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had known and acted on these two things earlier:

1. The menopause transition is marked by hormonal chaos - but symptoms are worthy of treatment if they’re bothersome (ignore the rhetoric that they are "natural") Plus, discomfort increases the more symptoms you experience, resulting in a horrible and overwhelming cumulative effect.

Medical professionals and others told me "Menopause is normal, a natural transition" and nobody advised me early on about the severity of the symptoms all together and that if they disturb you, you should get treatment.

So I waited too long to get the medical support* I needed, believing it was natural and normal - now words that I see can be dangerous for health as it is suggesting that suffering is something that one should just put up with (read more here).

2. Find a professional and thorough gynaecologist, that cares

It took me multiple appointments (maybe 7 different tries!) to find a decent and wonderful medical professional. Finding a suitable medical professional was not easy and something I wish I had before menopause. Once found, this wonderful professional tracked my hormone levels for 6 months and then we found a hormone supplementation*. We still work together and see each other regularly.

I learned this lesson the hard way so any pre-menopause people, I recommend you get a supportive menopause medical professional in your corner early!

Be vulnerable and ask for help to rest

Once the decision to take sabbatical and the planning had started, I started to tell my client contacts, freelance team and wider network. That is when the real magic started to happen, clients were understanding and supportive, putting many of my concerns at ease - with the knowledge income would be there when I returned after my break, was reassuring.

My wider team also leaned in to support me, checking inboxes, answering DM's and messages on various platforms, to ensure I could totally switch off.

Being open about needing to rest as a priority, asking for help and getting lots of support in return was a real lesson in human understanding and kindness.

Once I knew I had support, I found I got better at planning and organising, realising I could really close the laptop and rest for the 3 months as planned.

Scheduling social content was a huge advantage!

As I started to explore how I would maintain my LinkedIn content and presence - the main source of my leads and income - I discovered that scheduling content was the key to keeping myself work-free during my months off.

I also discovered for my Substack publication and community, all my weekly posts and articles could be planned, pre-prepared and scheduled for publishing with ease.

My content calendar for the 3 month sabbatical was a little sparser than usual, but it still had a scheduled rhythm and I can report that during my sabbatical:

?? 4k audience gain in 3 months whilst on sabbatical using scheduled content.

?? 1,034 new followers gained in one day during the sabbatical time period.

Which demonstrates that growth and rest can be combined and prevail.

What is an Async Sabbatical anyways?

In an ideal world if you need and take a sabbatical as a knowledge worker, you would turn off the computer and any devices doing no work at all, whatsoever, none, none, completely.

Some people can and do manage to do this, good for them!

However, for many of us entrepreneurs a 100% total switch off is not possible, as we are responsible for clients, employees, teams and other's.

Asynchronous work is work that is non synchronous in nature, which does not involve you being online at fixed and set times to either deliver live events, sessions, attend meetings, answer messages or complete work at the same as any others.

< Some of the best resources on asynchronous work practices and communications are curated by Doist , like the image below >

So an Asynchronous Sabbatical will suit those who cannot take time off totally and completely, needing to keep their business going to some degree. For me, and it will be different for everyone, this meant every second week on a Monday for approx. 1 hour, I checked my inbox and one IM channel, where any important messages were shared by my VA and also made sure all social content was ready and scheduled.

On occasion during the 3 months, I was alerted to an urgent message or completed the odd live session (by choice) but again, this was my decision and the majority of the time I rested and did not work.

In particular, I did not open my laptop to work for the majority of the time, which was exactly what I needed for the majority of the time, taking a break from work and a break from screens and devices.

Sabbaticals for modern tech and knowledge workers are like a magic wand, they restore and renew energy, focus, creativity and a sense of purpose.

For those of us who need to maintain our businesses, designing async sabbaticals before and during our dedicated rest-time is a way to take rest, whilst keeping things ticking over.

What's Next!?

I am back to work about 3 weeks now and my energy and focus has returned. What has been the biggest learning is that I can take many of the lessons from async work and supported rest with me now, into my daily work and schedules.

Actually, I am currently developing a range of content and workshop material on "How Asynchronous Sabbaticals can support smarter work", which is exciting - one of my favourite things is to take real practical learnings into my day-to-day work, if you are interested, book a workshop here >>

Thanks for reading,

love, light and to your health,

?? Ro

*Hormonal supplements were medically prescribed after extensive time and hormone monitoring (note: not HRT, I am not a candidate), please consult with a registered medical professional for advice and support.

???? Signing off from France on a Countryside Housesitting FarmStay

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