Dealing with creative burnout: Part One

Thanks to a recent Buzzfeed article, it seems like burnout is on everybody’s mind.

As a millennial, I can certainly relate to the original article about being the burnout generation, but it also made me think about how burnout affects creative people in unique ways. It often takes a toll on our confidence as creatives, perhaps more so than “normal” burnout.

While I’ve talked about factors such as decision fatigue in the past, I wanted to take some time and delve into what it means to be burned out and why you might be feeling this way. Then next week we’ll talk about how to cure it.

Symptoms of burnout

For creatives, burnout may look a little different than it does in other scenarios. And since everyone and their creative process is different, it varies from person to person. Still, there are usually a few tell-tale signs:

Feeling like you have no ideas or inspiration

We all go through dry spells when the gears in our minds just aren’t turning. But when this continues for several days or even weeks, it is often a sign of burnout.

Inability to get into the “flow”

When I sit down to write, it usually takes me a while to get into a rhythm. Some days it never happens at all, and I just spend an hour wrestling with words, only to barely get a sentence on the page. Again, if this happens every now and then, it’s totally normal (even if we wish it wasn’t). But if you consistently seem unable to find that groove when you start creating, you might be burned out.

Lasting sense of self-doubt

All creatives struggle with doubting if their talent and their work is any good. It’s because we care about what we’re doing, and we put a little piece of ourselves into it. So when doubt comes crawling in, it’s hard to keep it out. But for many creatives, if this feeling continues longer than it ever has before, it might be a symptom of burnout. Often the self-doubt comes from other symptoms of burnout: not being able to come up with ideas or get into a flow of creativity will quickly convince you that you’re no good at what you do, when in reality you’ve just overworked yourself.

Finding other things to do instead

This is another symptom that stems from other results of burnout, and less from the burnout itself. If you consistently dread creating and find excuses not to start or seek out other things that need your attention, it’s probably in part because you don’t enjoy creating anymore. This doesn’t mean you should quit creating; rather, it means that the other symptoms of burnout have made it no fun anymore, and you, maybe even subconsciously, are avoiding it.

It’s important to recognize that each of these symptoms can happen without burnout. What’s important to pay attention to is how long they last. When one or more extends for weeks or months, it’s probably pointing to a problem larger than just normal creative woes.

Causes of burnout

There are lots of little things that can add up and lead to burnout, and since it again varies for each person, I won’t be able to cover them all here. But identifying some potential reasons behind your burnout is key to being able to solve it, and there are often some common denominators that we can discuss:

Using up your creative well without refilling it

Think of creativity like a muscle. If you constantly used it without ever resting it or giving it the nutrients it needs, it would quickly grow tired and stop working properly. In the same way, if you are constantly creating without giving yourself time to slow down and “refill” your creativity, you’ll find yourself in burnout. Each person’s limits are different, and everybody finds different things refilling, but it’s important to figure out what works for you so you can head off burnout before it starts.

Focusing on smaller urgent tasks, not big important ones

There is a difference between something that’s urgent and something that’s important. Urgent tasks demand our attention, and feel like they need to be dealt with right away. This can include things like email, returning phone calls, or managing our social media. Important tasks feel less imminent, but actually are far more deserving of your time. This primarily means your actual creative work, whether it’s working on your novel, designing that website, or whatever your medium is. When we get bogged down in doing these small tasks that are often never-ending, our creativity feels stifled, and can lead to burnout.

Doing lots of work for little ROI

ROI stands for “return on investment,” and is an important factor to consider when you decide to take on a new project. It may feel like everyone you know is starting a blog or a YouTube channel or teaching online courses, and this can lead you to think that you should as well. But these things are only as helpful as what you get out of them. Not just in terms of money or networking, but also how it affects you. If you’re pushing yourself to be on social media constantly, but you always leave it feeling drained, it may not be worth it. Or at least, you should evaluate ways you can cut back on the effort you put in to maximize the reward you get out. Of course there will always be things we have to do that we don’t enjoy, but if you are frequently overworking in areas that don’t give you any excitement, this is a quick path to burnout.

If you’re still reading this, congrats! You made it to the end of a very long post. Now that we know what can cause burnout and what it looks like, the next step is to figure out how to solve it. Come back next week for part two, when we’ll do just that!

Have you ever dealt with burnout? How did you recognize it in yourself? What caused it? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this article, pin it to share and save for later!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Featured image by Denny Müller