We love to pile hundreds of tasks onto our overflowing proverbial plates. Creatives are passionate, you become obsessed with your work and unable to stop.
But you have to remember that your work suffers when you push yourself until youre strung out.
So, here’s what you should do to avoid burn out:
Dont slack, schedule your tasks and hit them. And when youre done, stop. Dont work 24/7. Its easy to do as a freelancer or creative, but dont. When your list is done, stop and reward yourself. Do something simple that you love:Â read during a bubble bath, enjoy a pot of tea with friends, or vegetate on some horror flicks in a dark room (one of my favorite rewards!).
Finish a big project? Did you score and exceed your sales expectations? Go out to dinner, get your nails done, or buy that little thing youve been wanting.
Remember: In a way, our work is out life, but dont forget that were working to enjoy our lives! On that note, Im stopping now to watch some horror movie goodness.
How will you treat yourself this week?
Leave your response in the comments below.
image credit Take Time to Do…
Vanessa wrote this post. She is a full time copywriter and webmarketer with a passion for art, creativity, and thrift. She writes about thrifting, creating, and saving money every weekday on her blog, Thrift Core.
7 comments | Click here to reply
this is an awesome, and timely post!! i’m in my 5th year of freelancing, and at some point i had to just say “no” to burnout. otherwise your work and life suffer big time!
amyI think people that work within creative fields, like Etsy sellers, are at a pretty high risk of burning out. Especially those of us that do as many tasks as possible ourselves.
We’re not only making crafts, we’re designing them, buying the materials, marketing our shop, taking photos for listings, keeping track of our book keeping- and some of us still manage to keep blogs on top of that! And I’m not even going to go into the crafters that have families to raise!
I think it’s important to schedule the routine tasks and find a workflow that makes them as automatic as possible.
And in regards to crafting, having a few stable cash flow items that are routine to make can help balance out time-consuming creative projects that are more for fun than profit.
Too many routine crafts means missing out on the fun of experimenting and makes it boring, but too many new time-consuming projects can lead to creative burn out very quickly!
And I agree – rewarding yourself is so important. What’s the point in doing what you love for a living if you don’t take a moment to enjoy it?
AnnaThanks Vanessa! I just grabbed your button for my blog.
CourtneyCourtney: Try it, it’s tempting to go on all night, but your work is better after some R&R!
VanessaLindsey: That’s a great perspective. We should strive to really enjoy our work, too.
VanessaAnother great post. Being an art student I find that it’s easy for my creativity to burn out sometimes. Its just as easy to keep going and going 24/7 without taking the time to stop; I’ve really never thought about rewarding myself before but I think it’s a great incentive to finish a project, stop, and then move on to the next. Talk about another good way to get things done!
CourtneyI try to make sure the things I do, are the things I want to do! I may not get that everywhere (work, day-to-day life things you just have to do) so when I get to work on projects, I wanna do things that make me happy. And then taking the time to enjoy them when I complete them!
Lindsey