WAC: Burning out
It's, unfortunately, easy to burn out in creative environments.
Burning out is easy; recovering from Burnout isn’t. So how can we prevent it from happening?
This is the last article of my “Worldbuilding & Challenges” series, where I will talk about worldbuilding events and why you should take part in them, and share some tips for them.
Reading time: 7 minutes.
Table of contents
DISCLAIMER: All the contents of this article are based on what I’ve experienced and seen other people experience. I have no studies in psychology.
CONTENT WARNING: Mention of mental issues.
Burnout
Burnout, in a nutshell, is the body's reaction to overworking or forcing yourself too far. It’s the feeling of not being rewarded properly or even getting closer to a goal anymore. It’s a struggle, and it can result in big health problems if left untreated.
Do you know when you feel you’ve made a lot of progress but when you look towards your destination, it still feels out of reach? You put in so much effort and it seems you are not getting any results. Or maybe you realise you don’t know where you are going?
Or when you give your all towards an objective, and when you’ve finished you feel unrewarded? Like it’s not enough? That you are underappreciated and unrecognized?
It might feel like you are throwing all your energy into an endless pit —trying to fill it up and cross it.
Burnout is all that. Every person is unique, and burnout can come from many different sources. Its symptoms can be similar to depression, so it’s important to learn to differentiate if you are feeling Burnt out or depressed, as one can be dealt with by taking care of yourself while the other needs external help.
Burnout is not simply tiredness, it’s feeling depleted and damaged from dealing with stress for too long. It steals your joy and passion.
There is a long list of symptoms that burnout manifests as, and many types of burnout (depending on the source), but I’ll be talking specifically about Creative Burnout. So, here is a —long— list of common symptoms:
Feelings: stuck, fatigued, not creative enough, that you aren’t doing enough, numb, defeated, a failure, dissatisfied, incapable, underappreciated, unrecognized, unrewarded, helpless, out of control, incompetent, depleted, used up.
You have negative thoughts or feelings towards creation: that you don’t have “good” ideas, self-doubt, Imposter Syndrome.
You have behaviour changes: lack of interest in liked/loved activities, increased procrastination, frustration and irritability, increased comparisons, headaches, digestive issues, being extra hard on yourself, distancing yourself from creative activities, reduced performance, loss of appetite, insomnia.
You feel too little: emotions, motivation, self-care, enthusiasm, unable to create new things.
You work harder, frantically, and take in too much work.
Avoiding responsibilities.
Neglect basic needs and social life.
It’s important to remember that you won’t necessarily have ALL the listed symptoms. If you start thinking “I only have a few of these symptoms, surely I’m not burned”, don’t listen to that —you might be creeping towards burnout and you should still take care of it.
Dealing With It
Living with Burnout without taking care of it will not only increase your stress and pressure, but it can affect you physically and mentally. More serious cases can mimic depression and might even bring suicidal thoughts. Burnout is a mental condition and should be taken as seriously as a broken hand.
So how can we deal with it? There’s no miraculous treatment that will cure it instantly; it’s something that takes a while to treat and some methods might work for some people while others might not.
The following list has different methods that I’ve seen working for some people. You might have to follow a few methods at the same time, or maybe only one of them will help you.
Recognize the problem (that you are burned out), its source, what went wrong (the cause), and what changes you can make.
Take breaks and proper rests. Take care of your health and your social life. Distance yourself from what caused the burnout for some time while you heal.
Change. Try to work on something different for a while to let your brain reset. Try a change of scenery. Try to add a fresh twist.
Re-learn to enjoy the process. At one point, your focus was on the outcome, but the progress is as important. Create small, realistic milestones and celebrate them.
Make and follow a plan. Sometimes rigid structure is the best way to reboot your brain.
Work within 10-minute periods. Just write for a minimum and maximum of 10 minutes. This helps when your main problem is procrastination.
Engage in a rotation of mindless activities. Do simple, mindless tasks that can catch your attention but don’t require decision-making. Avoid doomscrolling though; it only makes it worse. (Thanks Demongrey for the addition!)
If it’s a light burnout, step back for a day and watch a series or read a book. If it’s a more serious burnout, going out for a walk/swim, taking a "vacation" or meditating can help. Exposing yourself to varying stimuli can help with dealing with burnout. (Thanks Tyrdal for the addition!)
Fully rest for a while, but get out of the house daily for at least 30 min. Once the energy levels are recovering start doing small, fun things —not more than an hour or two a day since energy is still recovering. After that, you can gradually build up the time spent on fun things and move towards “productive” things. Eventually, you will almost out of burnout and you’ll only have to keep a close eye on your energy levels. With creative burnout, step away from the creative work for a bit and go enjoy other creative work to find new inspiration and pursue new creative works you hadn’t considered yet. (Thanks ShadowPhoenix for the addition!)
Allow yourself to do nothing for a while and focus on passive things (reading, watching TV, etc) that require no mental energy. Focusing on passive things tends to inspire you and motivate you to get back at it. (Thanks AmelieIS for the addition!)
Trying To Avoid It
To avoid burnout you first need to know how it affects you, which makes it a bit hard to avoid if you’ve not been burnout before or have only realized when you are knee-deep into it. It’s not easy, but it’s also important; you have to pay attention to your body and learn to read the signs.
Avoiding burnout means self-care. Resting is important. While it’s constantly said, most people don’t rest or “fake” rest by doing other things instead of “resting” from the cause of burnout. Taking regular breaks is important, and you need to rest well in these breaks if you are working on something for a long period.
Another thing to pay attention to is your limits. It’s a bit hard to know them if you haven’t pushed and broken them before, but it’s highly important to not push yourself too far, and to know when to stop. While breaking your limits is important for you to learn and grow, there’s a difference between breaking just for improvement and breaking them to do things, and it’s often the second that causes burnout (but the first can also lead to burnout if not being careful).
Don’t ignore your basic needs and social life. Spend time with hobbies, family, fun things, friends, etc. It’s not resting, but keeping the basics for your mental health is important.
In general, avoiding burnout is closely similar to healing it, but prevention is better than healing. Burnout can last from days to months or even years, so healing is not ideal, while prevention is the key to keeping your health and enjoying your work.
Tell me
Have you had Burnout before? How did you realise it? How did you take care of it? If you have other methods than the ones I’ve listed; please leave them in a comment, maybe it’ll help someone else!
More about burnout
TJ Trewin wrote a great article about Burnout, with gorgeous graphics that are very visual and informative. I highly recommend reading his article.
Keep reading the series
Burning out (this article!)
Thanks
I want to thank you, the reader, for coming along on this ride, and for reading, liking, and commenting. I hope this small series has helped you and that you’ve learned something new. Make sure to subscribe if you want to read new posts when I write them.
I also want to thank Tyrdal for proofreading every article, and Razhea for editing; it’s been lovely to work with them! And can’t leave without thanking the STC (you know who you are) for “pushing” me to write these articles!
Hope to see you in the next article!
Physical exercise can help with recovery as well as avoiding it. The problem, for me at least, is being consistent with it, which is another can of worms :)
As someone currently going through burnout and it's cycle constantly, this article really helped.
I've used the rigid structure time and again but usually it's taking a small step back that's shown me how good things are.
I'm still bad at recognising the signs but thanks to fellow creatives and friends, I've been able to start working to get better, and realise it's not one person alone!