There’s nothing like navigating icy sidewalks in April to make you ready for a change. As in, I am so done with this! It’s been a long winter in many parts of the U.S., breaking records for inclement weather and relentless storm systems. It wouldn’t be surprising to see trends for relocations or other life changes this spring as people take stock of their lives.

Anecdotally, one pattern I often see in the spring is an increase in conversations about ramping down at work. Being based in Minnesota, I have no doubt about the timing: Life is short, but summer is shorter. Worker bees suddenly freed from their parkas and wool hats start thinking about real bees, and birds, and flowers, and everything else they’ve been missing.

It’s not a geographic phenomena by any means. Thanks to our school calendars, Americans are programmed to see summer as the season of freedom. But how to take advantage if you have a job?

Following are four ways to ramp down your summer work schedule. These are highly dependent on the type of work you do, and on your financial ability to weather the break. That said, even the most confining work structure might have options for modification if you approach the problem with creativity.

• 1. Use up your vacation. Might as well start with the obvious, since that could be the easiest solution to implement. If you’ve been accumulating vacation days, perhaps it’s time to cash them in. Not enough time banked to make a difference? Adding unpaid leave might be the solution.

There are a number of ways this plan could stall, including your boss’ unwillingness to let you vamoose for weeks or months on end. Before broaching the subject, conduct some light research. Has this been done before in your company? Is your department heading into a slow period? Would you be difficult to replace if you quit altogether? If the answers are yes, these facts could help bolster your case.

• 2. Ask for a sabbatical. Speaking of unpaid leave — what about an unpaid sabbatical? Of course, a paid sabbatical is better, but they are fairly rare. In either case, a sabbatical is essentially the same as leave, except that it might carry a sense of purpose with it. In academia, faculty are expected to take sabbaticals to complete research or other projects, for example.

Whether your company would want a project in exchange for the time away is something you’d have to explore — along with the question of whether they’d allow the leave at all. In some cases, using the term sabbatical might be just the window dressing your boss needs to sell it on your behalf.

• 3. Go part-time. If an actual leave doesn’t seem feasible (or affordable), the next best thing might be a part-time schedule. For example, an arrangement that frees up Fridays can make a nice break for the summer, in terms of three-day weekends. Heck, free up Mondays too and you’ll tip the scales to fewer days on than off.

To make this happen, you might need to give something back. For example, would you work three 9- or 10-hour days if it meant having four days off? However you tinker with things, beware the request to do 12-hour shifts, or to switch to remote without dropping any days. Those options aren’t really breaks and might leave you less refreshed than you’d hoped.

• 4. Just quit and come back later (or not). Here’s an oldie but goodie: Just give your notice and go home. If you work in a field with high employee mobility, such as hospitality, there’s an excellent chance you can pick up comparable work in the fall when you’re ready to return. Likewise, you may find that your current employer would welcome you back.

Another, less drastic, option would be to quit then return on your own terms as a contractor. This obviously needs to be worked out with your boss, and it definitely depends on the type of work you’re doing. There will be IRS considerations for both parties as well. The upside is that you will have shifted the balance of power so that you’re the one deciding when and where you work.

If taking a break for the summer feels radical or undoable, you can start by exploring options on paper or in conversation with a friend. Expressing ideas in this way sometimes helps make them more viable.

Just keep remembering the mantra: Life is short, but summer is shorter.

Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.