What is Creative Burnout?
Back in April of 2019, I spent the entire month practically staring at a wall. I had no desire to work on anything creatively and I basically watched anime and movies for the whole month. This was because in March I spent the entire month locked up in my office busting away at the Paths: World of Adia RPG. We were gearing up for the first Kickstarter and I wanted the game to look perfect before the public saw it.
Not only did I not finish what I wanted to get done, but I also kickstarted the entire month of April being a whole month of creative burnout. All because I pushed myself too hard, too fast.
What is Creative Burnout?
While some could read my story and believe I was just taking a break, that was not what I was doing. Creative burnout is a state in which after experiencing long periods of continuous stress the body becomes physically and emotionally drained. If you don’t know what it’s like to feel drained, imagine feeling like it's a Monday after a long day working yourself into near exhaustion. Every. Single. Day.
People who work in creative fields can feel this way pretty easily. It's a very different scene when you take something creative you enjoy and make it into a job. There are deadlines, even if they aren’t very well defined. From hard deadlines like when a commission needs to be done to soft deadlines like releasing 2 articles a month, it creates a pressure to get it done even if you are not in the mood creatively.
If you haven’t heard of the spoons metaphor I recommend reading up on it. This metaphor can be applied to your creative energy. When you have to make deadlines, sometimes you will need to borrow spoons from the future in order to get through the project. Taxing yourself too much in this way (especially if you also have a day job) can lead to creative burnout.
How to Avoid Creative Burnout
When I first thought about this, I thought I was the worst person to answer the question of how to avoid creative burnout. While I am personally terrible at avoiding it, I know exactly why I am so bad at it.
1 - Slow Down
This is the part that I am the worst at, but I am always taking steps toward it. For those following my author newsletter, you will know that slowing down is one of my goals for 2020. By slowing down you reduce the amount of stress you feel over a period of time. Take breaks, go for a walk through the park, and spend time with friends.
For me, this means sitting down with the other nerds from Nerdolopedia and watching anime and movies. Yes, I am always analyzing the things I watch and my reactions to things, but that is just how my brain is wired now. I can’t turn that off. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t enjoyable for me and relieves me of stress.
2 - Modify Your Workflow
Akin to slowing down, is making that a part of your workflow. After my burnout in April, I sat down and reworked our project workflow at Smunchy Games for developing RPG’s. The goal of this workflow was to give ample time and planning for projects to avoid creative burnout for our members. I have been echoing ever since then “never again” when talking about my March of 2019.
You need to work into your schedule the ability to be flexible. If you freelance artwork, understand how long it takes you complete different tasks. Do you know how long it takes you to work on hands? Then you will know how much more time you will need to draw a character with extra hands. As you work out the estimate for how much time you think it will take to finish a piece, double that time. If you know it will take you 24 hours to finish a piece and you can only work 4 hours a day on it, don’t push yourself to finish it in 6 days. Take 12 days, minimum.
Doing this ensures that you will be able to adjust in case your original estimate was wrong, making it so you don’t fall behind and to give yourself days to relax. As my significant other put it, “scheduled procrastination”. On top of all that, if you get the creative energy to just blow through it (trust me, I’ve had these beautiful days) then your clients will only be happy that you finished early. Just don’t rely on these random bursts of creative energy for every project, that’s how you get “Bioware Magic”.
3 - Say No
Out of all the things in this list, this is the item I am the absolute worst at. You have to learn to turn down projects. Whether they are projects that someone is commissioning you (this is the reason artists close down commissions) or it is a project that you put on yourself. Finish your other projects first. This is a problem I personally suffer with, as evidenced by the fact I write these articles, design RPGs, stream on Twitch, write short stories for my author blog, work on novels, and world build and research. Learn to say no to things.
4 - Physical Health
As creatives, there is a stigma that many of us believe that because we are creatives that our physical health is not important. After all, we use our minds, so mental health is all that we need to care for! But mental health is not an island, it is inextricably linked to your physical health. You need to get exercise and eat healthier if you want to experience better mental health and have more energy. When I went to martial arts every week in high school, I didn’t suffer from a lack of energy.
Some might not be convinced, so it's time for Anatomy 101. Your body runs off of energy, your brain is the largest consumer of calories in your entire body. How your body processes the food you eat becomes really important since the brain runs exclusively on sugar glucose (no this doesn’t mean just go out and eat a shit-load of candy). Now I’m sure you have heard of diabetes. At its core, diabetes is when your body has issues processing sugars that you eat. While you may not have diabetes, your physical health (weight being one such measure) can contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes. This transition is not a sudden switch, like everything in the body it’s gradual. This means that the less you care for yourself, the less your body is able to properly process the sugars you eat.
Hopefully, you can see the cycle here. Exercising increases the efficiency of the body to process nutrients which, news flash, the brain needs. So, if anything else, taking the time out of your day to exercise some will help improve your body’s energy reserves.
5 - Passion, Not Work
As the resident workaholic, I have a habit of taking the things I love to do creatively and turning them into work. This doesn’t help avoid creative burnout, it just adds another level of stress to the mix. It can be really hard to not want to turn your passion into a job. We were raised to “do what you love” but I think a few people missed the meaning behind it. I’m not saying to work a job you hate, just find one thing you enjoy to make your job and not all the things.
Having a hobby that isn’t a job, but that you can return to for fun, gives you a non-stressful creative outlet. I love miniature painting. While I do stream it on occasion, I have painted most of my miniatures off camera. The stream just becomes a time for me to hang out with people. A while ago I even considered opening up my painting for commissions. However, I made the executive decision that I needed something in my life that wasn’t going to be another job.
6 - Sleep
This could be classified under physical health, but this is pretty important for those in the creative fields. Sleep plays an important role in the functions of the brain. One benefit of sleep (as there are many) is its ability to reduce stress. If you remember, creative burnout is literally caused by too much stress. Getting a proper amount of sleep at night will help get rid of that stress, plus play a role in improving your physical health.
7 - Get Proper Medical Care
This is a sore spot, especially with many here in the US, since getting proper medical attention/care is an entire fight in itself. While this falls in line with keeping yourself in good physical health, it also has to do with proper mental health too. As an example, I suffer from Major Depression Disorder which comes with a host of issues including sleep problems and feeling drained regularly. On the proper medication, my symptoms would at least be alleviated.
Now I understand that the medical field is incredibly complicated and not all health care is going to get you in perfect mental/physical health. However, if there is something that can be done to ease the problems that come with health problems, I believe it's completely worth it to pursue them. I am no medical expert and I suggest talking with doctors and therapists on the correct course of action to correct any issues you may be experiencing.
How to Cure Creative Burnout
One area I feel more confident in is my ability to get out of creative burnout. I should note that these are methods that I have used personally to get out of the draining feeling of creative burnout.
1 - Go With the Flow (aka Relax)
Whenever I start to feel the effects of burnout, I first identify that I am experiencing it (it could be a depressing thing that I experience it enough to identify it). I then accept that I am going through it and change my schedule with that in mind. Putting delays on projects and canceling events is one way I do this. For the time that I am in burnout, I just go with the flow of my body and do the things it does have the energy and motivation to do. Sometimes this will be binge-watching a season of an anime I’ve seen a dozen times, it could be sitting on my floor staring at the ceiling, or it could be watching YouTube videos about ant colonies. I try to avoid fighting it and forcing myself to work because that will only make it worse.
2 - Finding Something New
Have you ever had that moment where you had a thought and immediately wanted to sit down and start working on it? These are moments that have helped pull me out of creative burnout. Sometimes all we need is a change of pace and finding something different, but not important, can give us the energy we need to finish a project. You don’t even have to worry about finishing them. I’ve written a dozen half-finished articles, started development on a My Hero Academia based RPG, and even the openings of some short stories. All of these were creative pieces that hooked my brain and I had to follow through with because with step 1, I was going with the flow.
3 - Spend Time with People
I am quite the introvert and you can only imagine that when I’m burnt out, I don’t want to spend time with anyone. I am also aware that it's what I believe and not what I know. The truth is nobody is completely introverted. Around the right people, even an introvert can get some energy being around others. Human beings are social animals and being or feeling isolated has negative effects on our health. The part I can’t help you with is finding the people that give you energy and joy while being around. That is a journey you will need to figure out on your own.
What Needs to Change?
So far I’ve been talking about all the ways that you personally can handle and cure creative burnout, but this runs so much deeper than our personal lives. Our society has created an environment that allows creative burnout to thrive.
The Internet
This may seem insane coming from someone who pretty much lives on the internet, but hear me out. The internet has created a landscape in which those who post the most often or the most controversial. For creative burnout, this means that every creative person that is trying to make a living on the internet has to compete with the fast pace of content on the internet. If they don’t see your content or are waiting for your content, they may go somewhere else if they don’t get enough. This push to create more content rewards people for pushing themselves to burnout.
Work Culture
The fast-paced nature of the world has been driven into many workplace cultures which means in most workplaces (at least in the US) encourage overworking, especially with things like overtime. This has ingrained into the collective culture that we have to work as much as we can in our lives. We even start looking down on people who don’t work as hard. This naturally creates a culture where we measure our value based on the quality and quantity of our work.
So how do we go about changing this? What could we possibly do in the face of the internet and the looming monster that is our collective culture? The simple answer is to change your personal approach to each of these and to encourage others, especially employers and leaders, to push for change. The reality is that things will not change if we as a society do not want them to change. The greatest power we have is our collective voice.
For the internet, there are several ways that you can work around the need to be constantly posting new works. Content is not just your finished creative works. Give work-in-progress shots, behind the scenes, talk about the fun things you did, etc. Cultivate a following that understands that your work may not be immediate, that you take your time for your health. The good news is that this is becoming more culturally acceptable, as shown by Cyberpunk 2077’s announcement of delays to avoid crunch. This is gaining momentum, we just have to keep giving it the push.
If you enjoy the material on this site please consider supporting us! If you think I missed something, found something you enjoyed, or you would like me to cover something specific make sure to leave a comment below or contact me on twitter. You can also catch our streams over on Twitch for video games, art, and tabletop gaming content. If you want more of the things I do, I have a website dedicated to my other projects. I am also the Lead Game Designer for the Paths: World of Adia RPG by Smunchy Games.
