Last week I talked about what being burned out looked like for creative people, and some potential causes. Of course, the most important thing you can do to fight burnout is to avoid these causes as much as possible. Sometimes, though, this isn’t possible, and so incorporating other habits into your life can help prevent burnout or alleviate it if you’re already feeling its effects.
Figure out your creative rhythm
Creativity isn’t automatically replenishing. If we push and push our creative limits, we’re going to burn out. That’s why it’s important to find a good creative rhythm for yourself. This rhythm is the balance between creating something and then doing something that refills your creativity. It’s different for everyone, and often changes based on what else is going on in your life—your job, your family life, school, your financial situation. All of these will affect how far you can push your creativity before needing to refill.
The activities that will refill your creativity also vary from person to person. For me, reading, walking, watching good movies, and doing my devotional all contribute to maintaining a healthy creative life. Experiment with different ideas and see which ones boost your creative energy the most. Again, this may not stay the same, so be sure to revisit them periodically and evaluate if an activity still helps you fill up, or if you need to find a new one.
Set boundaries
Burnout can happen when the different parts of our lives leech into each other, leaving us feeling guilty and like we should be using our time in a different way. To help with this, set clear boundaries for yourself. There are several ways you can do this. It might be setting time boundaries—“For this hour, I’m going to create and not feel guilty that I’m not spending time with my family” or “After dinner is going to be family time and I won’t feel guilty that I’m not working on my project.”
You could also set physical boundaries—“When I’m not in the office, I won’t feel guilty about responsibilities at my job, and instead allow myself to create” or “When I’m at the coffee shop, it’s my time to work on my own projects.” It may be something as simple as closing the door to your home office fully whenever you’re done working in there.
The boundaries can be created however you need to fit your life, but once you decide on them, stick to them. I know, it’s much easier said than done to decide you’ll stop feeling guilty over something that you’re not working on. But recognize that you do feel guilty (instead of ignoring it and pushing it away) and that it’s a normal way to feel, and then do your best to let it go. As you practice this, and continue to follow your boundaries, you’ll learn to fully focus on whatever it is you’re meant to be doing now. That way, when it’s time to do something else, you can know you fully committed yourself to your other responsibility, so now you can fully commit yourself to this one.
Sleep. Seriously.
Sleep has so. many. benefits. Cutting back on the hours you give yourself to sleep in favor of getting more done is never worth it in the long run—the burnout it leads to is your body telling you to get some rest!
I’m not going to rant about how going to bed early will help you live longer or how people who stay up later tend to be more creative and successful, because I sort of think all those theories are a bunch of hooey. The most important thing you can do is figure out what kind of sleep schedule works for you (both for your body and what your daily life demands!) and commit to sticking to it.
Regardless of what that one article says, pushing yourself to stay up until the wee hours of the morning or wake up hours before sunset may not be doing you any favors if you’re not getting the right amount of sleep your body needs. For adults, that’s generally 7 to 9 hours, and for teenagers it’s closer to 9 or 10—per night. If you consistently get six hours of sleep and think you’re doing fine, I challenge you to commit to getting 8 hours per night for a week and see how you feel. You may truly only need 6, and not feel any different. But you may realize you feel a thousand times better and actually need more sleep than you’re getting.
Again, this is one that can be easier said than done, especially if you’ve got kids or a difficult work schedule. But try to examine your schedule and see what you can cut out to give yourself more time to sleep. Even good things, like reading or hanging out with family, might be worth cutting down on to make sure you (and your loved ones!) are getting the sleep you need.
Stop doing all the things
Learn to say no. It’s hard. I get it. But if you’re constantly taking on more stuff to do, that’s a fast track to burnout. Instead, when offered an opportunity, actually think about it. Will it help you get closer to your goals? Will it be rewarding to you (not just in your career, but also creatively or personally)? If you’re already busy, is it worth giving up a different commitment to make time for this one and are you able to do so? Don’t say yes just because you feel like you have to.
Additionally, there are lots of small, urgent tasks that feel like they need our attention now. Every time a notification pops up, it seems like we need to respond to it immediately. Really, though, you don’t. When you take care of these little tasks as they pop up, they just suck your time, energy, and attention away from bigger projects that feel less immediate, but are actually more important. Instead, set aside time to tackle these little things in big blocks. Turn off the notifications, and give yourself two half-hour periods each day to answer email. Or an hour block to do all your social media things. Or whatever small tasks seem to always eat away at your time. This leaves you free to focus on your more important projects without distraction.
Is something wrong with your project?
Sometimes when we feel burned out, it’s actually a sign that something isn’t working with our project. We may not even be aware of it, but it can be exhausting to keep trying to force a project to cooperate when there’s a good reason it won’t. In this case, it may be best to step away for a little while. Set a specific time—a week, a month—to work on something else and then come back to your project with fresh eyes. You may see something that’s obvious now, but you were just too deep in the weeds to notice before. If not, you may need to have someone else look at it and give you advice on what’s working and what isn’t. Ironing out wrinkles in your project may be the biggest thing you can do to help solve your burnout.
Have you dealt with creative burnout before? What did you do to help solve it? Let me know in the comments!
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Featured image by Aarón Blanco Tejedor
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