Your Complete Guide to Avoiding Creative Burnout
As a creative, you’ll understand the pressures that come with being creative.
Being this mentally engaged non-stop through the week will inevitably lead to feeling burned out; similar to writer’s block, where you can’t think of any ideas, and you just feel exhausted. This will happen to all creatives at some point or another, and the most important thing you’ll be focused on is getting back to your normal self, and then being proactive in avoiding it and making sure it doesn’t happen again.
Today, we’re going to take a look into everything you can do to avoid and overcome this burnout, helping you to perform consistently to the best of your ability.
Plan Your Downtime
You can’t work all the time. Even if you want to and you love what you do, working all the time is going to lead to burnout, and it’s going to kill your creative drive. When you’re planning your time, whether that’s on a daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis, add in set time you’re going to relax and take a break.
“On a yearly basis, set up 2 or 3 times a year where you’re going to have ‘quiet times,’ where you take on less work and have more time to focus on yourself. This way, you always have something to look forward to, and you give yourself the chance to recover from the busy times,” explains Mary Pratt, a health journalist for Essayroo and Ox Essays.
Don’t Take on Too Much Work
When you’re a creative, especially a freelance creative, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of not saying ‘no’ to new work or clients. However, this is something you’ll need to practice and master saying. Otherwise, you’re going to burn out quicker than ever before.
Remind yourself that there’s more to life than working, whether that’s socializing or doing something you want to do. You don’t have to take every single opportunity that comes your way, and you need to do things in your life that you want to do, rather than things you think you have to do.
Work in a Set Pattern
This is a particularly important point if you’re a freelance creative and work for yourself. Even if you don’t work nine till five, treat yourself as though you do. Basically, give yourself set working hours and stick to them. These could be between any hours you want but have this working routine on a daily basis is a great way to train your body to know when to focus and when to relax. Otherwise, you’ll fall into the trap of working all the time and never giving yourself the chance to have a break.
“Make sure you’re also setting yourself time to have breaks through your working day. The Pomodoro technique is one where you work for 25 minutes and have a five-minute break and has been proven to be an extremely effective way of working for many,” shares Harry Taylor, a music writer for Elite Assignment Help and Big Assignments.
Do Something Uncreative
During your downtime, it can be a good idea to try and doing something uncreative. For example, if you’re an artist or photography, try to avoid doing anything with a camera or paintbrush. Instead, try cooking, playing music, watching TV for a few hours, or going out and socializing.
You don’t want your downtime to turn into work time, so try and steer clear of your usual tools, even if this is only for a couple of hours a day.
Have One Day a Week
It’s completely common that sometimes you can’t always work to the routine you’ve set. Perhaps something’s gone wrong, and you need to put in the extra effort to correct it, or you have a pending deadline you want to try and meet.
If this is the case, if you’re working long hours during the day, instead try having one full day off a week. This means not answering emails, avoiding work communications and just getting work out of your head. Instead, focus on doing something you enjoy, or even trying something new.
Listen to Yourself
The final thing you’re going to need to do to avoid burnout is simply listening to yourself, your mind and your body. Do you feel exhausted? Do you feel tired? Have you been sitting in front of a computer screen for the last eight hours and you keep thinking about getting up and going for a break?
If this is the case, your body is actually telling you that you’re on the verge of burning out, which is why it’s so important that you don’t ignore your body and give it the time and space it needs to breathe and relax.
Grace Carter is a tech blogger and editor at Australian Reviewer and Assignment Help Services, where she writes about the latest technology trends and curates blog sections. Also, Grace is a tutor at UK Writings academic website.
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