2026 Sabbatical Plan

Energy + income framework for the 6-month Hungary/Brno stay. Adapted from HBR "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time" and a Bryan Johnson longevity list, filtered through actual IVF, move, and income constraints.
Last updated: May 17, 2026
The frame. This is a working sabbatical, not a disrupted gap. ~$400K CAD savings cover ~$80–115K spend — financial stress is psychological, not real. The income question is post-November positioning, not patching the 6 months. Burnout in week 8 is the failure mode. Subtraction is the highest-leverage move.
📅 Phase Model
PhaseWindowEnergyPrimary work
A — Pre-departureNow → May 23StableMove logistics, cubbylist stabilization
A1 — ArrivalMay 24–31Family-ledSettle, no bölcsőde, light cubbylist only
Beszoktatás~June 1–15Overlaps Cycle 1Bölcsőde settling-in; work time near zero some days
B1 — Cycle 1Late May → late JuneVariableLight only; IVF asset build
B-rest 1~1 weekNear baselineExpert calls, 1 cubbylist experiment, content kickoff
B2 — Cycle 2Early JulyVariableSame as B1, slightly more capacity
B-rest 2Late JulyNear baselinePush window
B3 — Cycle 3AugustVariableSame shape
B-rest 3Late Aug / early SeptBestPeak earnings — multiple calls, paid consults
C — TransferSept–OctEmotionalLighter again
D — Return to BCNovemberRecoveringOpen — depends on outcome

B-rest weeks are when real work happens. Design the week around those, not around stim days. Cycle 1 is the lightest by design — learn the shape, ramp in cycle 2.

🌅 Daily Rhythm (Canonical Bölcsőde Week)
06:30Wake (Nathan-led)
07:00–09:00Nathan breakfast + walk to bölcsőde (sun + steps)
09:30–11:00Sprint 1 — #1 priority
11:00–12:00Email batch 1 + walk + last coffee
12:00–13:00Lunch (often with Ádám once he's up)
13:00–14:30Sprint 2 — #2 priority
14:30–15:00Walk to bölcsőde pickup
15:00–18:00Afternoon with Nathan
18:00–19:30Dinner + Nathan bedtime (Ádám → work)
20:00–21:00Email batch 2 + light admin / reading
21:00–21:30Write tomorrow's #1
21:30–22:30Wind-down (book, bath, music, no screens)
22:30Sleep · cold room (17–19°C)

Transition weeks (May 23 arrival → ~June 1 bölcsőde start) and beszoktatás (settling-in, 1–2 weeks) differ — see the Calendar for visual grid + transition details.

⚡ Four Energy Dimensions
DimensionCore rituals
BodyFixed sleep window. Sunlight on wake. Small meals every 3 hrs. 20-min midday walk. Light strength 2–3×/week (no heavy cardio during stims). Coffee cutoff at noon. Cold sleep room. No screens 1 hr before bed. Plastics out of food/water contact.
EmotionsThree lenses for rejection/stress (reverse / long / wide). Long exhale before clinic calls. One specific appreciation to Ádám daily.
MindTwo 90-min sprints/day on top priorities. Email batched 2×/day. Tomorrow's #1 written tonight. Single-task; no notifications.
SpiritFriday 30-min review (built/decided, drained, next week's #1, this week's publishable signal). One friend per week — calendar-blocked.
💰 Two-Track Income Strategy

Distribution is the moat. Content-first builds owned audience for 2027; consulting is opportunistic add-on from inbound.

TrackActivityTime to revenue
Quick cash1:1 Claude Code consult ($300–500/90 min)2–4 weeks
Quick cashCLAUDE.md template / skills pack on Gumroad ($30–80)4–8 weeks
Quick cashMonthly office hours ($50–100/seat × 5–10 seats)1–2 months
Slow burnSubstack — 2 anchor posts/month (drealabs)3–6 months
Slow burnTwitter/X — 1 thread/week + 2–3 short posts/week6–12 months
Slow burnCohort / course later9–12 months
Slow burnExpert networks (GLG, AlphaSights, Tegus) — register Phase A3–6 months
🎯 Content Positioning
FrameBuild-in-public solo operator — not "AI educator"
ToneAnti-hype. "I built this. Here's the boring part."
FormatReal builds with screenshots, decisions, outcomes — show, don't teach
VoiceNerdy, no-bullshit, occasionally entertaining, never performative
AudienceMid-career product/ops people who want to build with AI
Closest modelsPieter Levels, Tony Dinh, early Cassidoo
Brand setupdrealabs as publication ("building with AI as a solo operator"); Andrea Antal byline

IVF abroad becomes texture (shows up in voice), not framing. Lean evergreen (workflow design, memory systems) over trend-chasing (newest features) — AI content depreciates fast.

🧪 Friday Lab + Test Tiers

Friday afternoon, 60–90 min: Capture & Publish Lab. Package the past 2 weeks of actual work into one Substack post or thread. Not new ideation — repackaging what already happened.

TierCost capTime capExamples
1 — Free signal$01–3 hrsFB post, 5 network DMs, pre-sale message, Reddit thread
2 — Cheap test≤$1004–8 hrsLanding page + $50 ad, Gumroad listing, fake-door form
3 — Concierge MVP≤$5001 weekManual delivery for 1–3 clients, no-code prototype

Rules: written kill criterion before starting. Never skip a tier. One active test at a time. For audience-building specifically: 90-day review, not single-post kill criteria — content compounds slowly.

🚧 Constraints to Remember
  • Three concurrent projects is the limit. IVF consultancy asset, Claude Code content, cubbylist conversion. Anything else gets caught by the Friday Lab kill mechanism.
  • The hardest week is the 4–5 days before retrieval, not retrieval itself. Pre-write that week's plan (walks, light cubbylist, no interviews, one decision/day max).
  • Stress is psychological, not financial. The Telus $300 credit is 0.3% of the sabbatical budget. Visible income offsets the visible drawdown more than another expense cut.
  • USD savings funding CAD + EUR/CZK spend. A 10% USD weakening = ~$30–40K CAD shrinkage. Worth considering converting a chunk to CAD now to lock in the mortgage rate.
  • Ádám appreciation ritual is load-bearing, not soft. Couples running IVF in close-quarters travel are running a startup under stress.
  • Partnership-time blind spot. Ádám works 18:00–~02:00 CET (North-American remote hours), wakes late. Weekday overlap = lunch + brief handoff. You'll be asleep when he finishes work. Weekends are the only real partnership window — protect both days aggressively. Consider one "no-Nathan" couple-block per weekend if grandparents can cover.
  • You are the solo evening parent Mon–Fri. Dinner + Nathan bedtime + admin all fall on you between 18:00–21:00. Build the rhythm assuming this, not assuming Ádám flex.
  • Job search effectively paused. Door-cracked-open one-line replies only. Resume thinking in November after middle-layer B2B (PLG, prosumer, dev tools) reshaping.
  • IVF consult pilot deferred until at least cycle 3+ — emotional cost during own treatment is too high. Build the asset; take customers later.
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