Originally posted on LinkedIn on February 2, 2026. Read and engage with the original post here.
Last summer, I left Meta after 25 years in tech. I didn’t have a job lined up or a grand plan. I just needed to step away after working quite hard for decades.
People asked what I was going to do with my time off. Was I retiring forever? Was I done with tech? What’s next, Pete?
Honestly, I didn’t know. I decided that I was going to take the rest of 2025 off and focus on this big list I had: Be the best stay at home Dad ever, get in the best shape of my life, read a ton of books, learn the guitar, play scratch golf, explore local parks, read a book a week and get the house completely organized. And more. I think I had like 50 things in a list on OneNote that I wanted to do. And then I figured after a few months of that, I’d figure out what comes next.
6 months later, here is the actual situation. I didn’t do most of what was on that list, and that’s ok.
What I learned instead was more valuable than the “grand plan.” I learned what stress actually feels like when you are carrying it. I learned that your body needs more than a weekend to recover from years of 50+ hour weeks. I learned that Mondays can be your favorite day of the week.
I share this not to brag about the experience, but to share what I learned. And I realize that I am incredibly fortunate to have had the chance/circumstances to take a 6-month break. What I share comes from a place of gratitude.
Here is what 6 months away from work taught me.
I Didn’t Realize How Stressed I Was Until I Wasn’t
I thought the stress I had in my life was relatively minor and would take a few weeks to subside. And in a few weeks, I did start to feel better, but not necessarily in the ways I expected. Physical pains started to disappear. For years, I’ve had this strange pain in my shoulder that would come and go. I thought it was due to a bicycle injury a few years ago. I also had this soreness in my ankle that would come and go with no explanation. I had chalked that one up to an injury playing touch football when I was 18. I figured this was just normal for a middle-aged person. Turns out both went away within weeks and have not returned. I’d been walking around with constant low-level pain for years and assumed it was just part of getting older. It wasn’t age. It was stress manifesting physically.
The mental/emotional portion of recovery took longer. It honestly took about 4 months to feel truly refreshed. Not “took a long weekend” refreshed. Like, “wow, this is what I’m supposed to feel like” refreshed. The brain fog lifted. I could read a book for more than 20 minutes without my mind wandering to my inbox. I could be present with my kids and not start thinking about the buzzing in my pocket. (I carried 2 phones for 11 years for goodness’ sake). I had forgotten it was possible to not feel stressed, because stress was the default for so long. Chronic multi-tasking and constant distraction took months to unwind.
I also started to feel tired in the early afternoon, generally from 1:30 – 3:00. I started taking naps during this time 4-5 days a week and felt horribly guilty. Like, here I was using this precious time off… to SLEEP? What a waste. And then I realized that this was part of the recovery. This was part of the work. I gave myself permission to nap guilt-free. And eventually, I felt way more energy after lunch and didn’t need the naps as often (but I still take them 1-2 days a week).
Here’s what surprised me: I thought two weeks off would be enough to reset. Maybe a month if I was really exhausted. Four months? That scared me. What does it say about how we work that it takes a third of a year to recover?
I don’t think I’m unique. I think a lot of people reading this are carrying that same tension in their shoulders right now.
Household Stuff IS a Full-Time Job
Before my break, I had this mental model: work was the “real” job, and everything else, taking care of the house, errands, caring for kiddos, maintenance, appointments was stuff that happened around the edges. I was totally wrong.
Running a household with kids is a full-time job. Grocery shopping, meal planning, packing lunches, doctor’s appointments, school events, packing lunches, bus stop runs, home repairs and keeping the house from descending into utter chaos is endless.
When I was working full-time, my wife Raqa was handling all of this. I helped where I could, sure, but I didn’t see the invisible labor. During my break, I took on more of this work and realized that this is why the weekends felt so short. I wasn’t resting on weekends. I was cramming a week’s worth of household chores, a social life, hobbies and other important obligations in a 48-hour period, while also trying to have quality family time.
The math didn’t work. I thought I had “work-life balance” and I really didn’t.
I don’t have a real solution here. Our weekends are still super busy because that is when the kids are off and so many things are going on. But I do have a greater appreciation for what it takes to run a life, not just a career. The “other stuff” in life isn’t the margins. Its half (or more) of the equation that I was ignoring.
Time Off Won’t Transform You Into Someone Else
Remember the laundry list of things I was going to accomplish while I was off? Most of it didn’t happen. I wanted to become this optimized, disciplined version of myself that I knew I could be… if I only had the time.
I’m in better shape, not great shape. I read 9 books, not 26. I did two YouTube guitar lessons. My garage still needs to be reorganized. I’m still a lousy golfer. I had to admit to myself that time wasn’t the problem.
For years, I used the ‘not enough time’ as the all-purpose excuse. I can’t consistently exercise because work is crazy. I can’t read because I’m exhausted. I can’t start that project because there aren’t enough hours in the day.
And then I had 6 months off and still didn’t do most of it. As it turns out, I was lying to myself. Time wasn’t the barrier. Motivation, discipline, energy, priorities – these all still mattered. Taking time off didn’t automatically make me more disciplined. But it did remove the excuse that had become so convenient to use.
The version of myself that I thought I would be “if I just had more time”? That person doesn’t exist. I’m still me. I still have limited energy and days when I didn’t feel like doing things or that afternoon nap. What changed for me wasn’t becoming a perfect Pete 2.0. What changed was I stopped expecting myself to be someone else. I stopped using “not enough time” as a shield against admitting what I cared about versus what I thought I should care about. It helped me narrow my focus and not try to do everything.
Time off doesn’t transform you. But it does give you the time and space to see yourself clearly and understand your motivations better.
Mondays Became My Favorite Day
This was probably the biggest surprise. I have experienced a “case of the Monday’s” countless times. Monday is the day you go back to work or school. Monday is when everything you put off on Friday has to be addressed. Monday is when you are as far away from next weekend as it’s possible to be. Mondays are like, the worst.
During my break, Monday’s have taken on a whole new feel. First off, two of my three kids are back to school and so the house is quieter. This gives me the opportunity to read, journal, take a walk in nature and exercise which is a welcome respite after a busy weekend. Mondays are mine.
This has taught me something I didn’t fully appreciate. I need solitude to recharge. Not all the time, but regularly. Time to sort out my thoughts, channel positive energy and process life around me.
PM work is really about people. What I realized during my break is: I’d been so focused on managing other people that I’d forgotten to manage myself. As I start the journey to start my own company, I’m protecting my time better. I plan to work set days each week and then reserve Mondays for truly recharging. Sometimes that will be a round of golf. Other times, it might be a walk alone in the woods. I might work in my office on a passion project without distractions. Or maybe I will just curl up on the couch with a good book and recharge that way.
I’d call it a time bucket approach. There is a bucket for family/weekends. A bucket for work and career. And a bucket for solitude and recharging. Over the past 6 months, I’ve noticed that the recharge bucket causes the other buckets to improve since they are getting the best of me. The version of me that is much less stressed, more present and focused.
I understand that not everyone can allocate Mondays for recharge. Transparently, I might not be able to do so forever. But I do see the value of having some time in our calendars for regular solitude and true recharge. Even if it’s only an hour or two a week, it’s enough to move the needle.
Moving Forward
As I work to develop my own company, I am re-entering. This time, I am doing things different. For most of my time in tech, I was working 50+ hours per week regularly. And then I would try to cram the rest of *life* into nights and weekends. Again, the math didn’t work. And something always got short changed. My health, my relationships, my emotional state.
Moving forward, I am committing to doing things differently:
Protect my health and well-being as non-negotiable. Instead of having vague notions of “I’m going to exercise” I am going to put marathon training on my calendar and not book work or obligations over it.
Set strong boundaries up front. Select the days I’m working and stick to it. Close up the laptop by 5PM and silence notifications.
Reserve time for solitude and reflection. Mondays are for recharging, thinking, reflecting, writing, reading and time in nature. Being alone with my thoughts. Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll succeed at this one. Old habits are hard to break and the hard-wired tendency to say “yes” to everything are something I’ll have to overcome.
Leverage tools that can help take the load off. One of the things I did during my break was experiment heavily with AI tools. Not because I had to, but because I finally had space to think about how work was changing. That’s what led me to Macro Delta – the realization that if AI can handle the grunt work, maybe PMs can finally focus on the human work. Including being more human ourselves.
I have seen the other side of burnout and what life can feel like when you aren’t perpetually running on empty. It’s sustainable.
Please note that you don’t need to work for yourself or have every Monday off to do the things listed above. It’s about determining priorities, establishing boundaries, and reserving time in your calendar for yourself. I promise this might be the biggest gift you can give yourself in 2026.
Have you ever taken a career break? Or thought about it but didn’t? What held you back or what did you learn? I’d love to hear your experience.