Dealing With Burnout!: 4 Personal Tips - Masterclass #9

Hey everyone!

Often I have the opportunity to create something, but I don't want to, and sometimes I don't even understand why exactly. Maybe it's because I feel tired, maybe I feel it's a waste of time, or maybe I just need someone to talk about it for a few mins. Knowing exactly what bothers us sometimes can be essential to improve our performance. This requires a certain level of awareness, a few minutes of self reflection, and actually taking the extra time to regulate our needs as humans.

Today, let's talk about burnouts, how to spot them, and how we can efficiently start to work on them.

Recognizing Burnout

The constant push to meet deadlines, maintain creative productivity, and produce high-quality work can inadvertently lead to an insidious form of chronic stress known as burnout. Unlike ordinary fatigue, burnout isn't something that a good night's sleep can fix. It's a state of constant physical and emotional exhaustion, often accompanied by feelings of disillusionment, ineffectiveness, and a sense of detachment from one's work.

In the art world where passion and motivation are integral, the effect of burnout can be profound. It can transform the tasks you once loved into burdensome chores. The joy and satisfaction once associated with creating art are replaced by a persistent sense of overwhelm, and even physical symptoms such as headaches or sleep disturbances. It's a silent productivity killer, gradually creeping in and sapping your energy, motivation, and creativity.

Mitigating Burnout

Recognizing the signs is just the starting point. But let's dig a bit deeper than the usual 'take a break' advice. Consider applying 'The Four R's Method'.

1. Recognizing: don't ignore feelings of exhaustion or cynicism, they're important signals. Take 10 min, lie on the floor, close your eyes and do absolutely nothing. Just pay attention to your thoughts and try to remember when you started to have them and why. Go back to the source. If you can't remember, just be aware that these thoughts are a reflection of your environment, they are not completely you.

2. Reverse: Removing unnecessary food from your diet and having at least a 30-min walk can improve the way you feel rapidly. Think of your body as a machine that requires certain "tasks" to perform the best. Your brain might try to convince you to "eat for pleasure/anxiety" or to "not spend energy," but you would be surprised how much a quick walk can improve your mood and how much money you can save on food when you stick to what's important only.

Another way to deal with this is to talk to yourself like a partner. You need to negotiate with yourself, say something like "let's finish this and once we're done, let's do this thing we love". AND once you are done, do it. You are dealing with your animal self that doesn't care about work, or any of those things, and it has the power to not allow you to do anything if it wants to, so keep that in mind and know how to give yourself proper rewards.

3. Resilience: It's not always about wanting to be cool. Sometimes you try all the techniques to reverse but it's just there, so create a space in which you know you can perform even when you feel tired. 

For instance, take mornings for heavy tasks. If you finish early and still feel great, try to do some extra in case the next day you'll be blocked. Building resilience is about developing the ability to bounce back and adapt to challenging situations rather than just trying to reduce stress. Be prepared to fight.

4. Relationships: Positive connections can be a real buffer against burnout. I prefer not to talk to anybody, but sometimes I force myself to have a quick chat with someone I like, just random stuff, sharing memes, or asking about what they did last weekend. There's always random stuff to talk about if you at least check Twitter. 

After listening to someone else, you might have a different perspective on the size of your problems, a solution you never thought of, or a moment to forget about "x" problem. If you're completely isolated, just say hi in our Discord chat. I'm not always there, but there's a nice group of artists always sharing feedback and support for the ones needing it.

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Burnout will be there from time to time. We live in a constant world changing around us and even if you have everything under control, you'll get caught up in situations that might change your plans. So the point here is to be aware and be prepared when one of these things starts poking your head with annoying thoughts. If you take your career seriously, you need to take care of your health in order to perform the best way possible.

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing the process video and PSD file of this beauty, along with some insights. Later this week, I'll be giving you more technical tips to improve your art and kick some asses!

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