Burnout doesn’t just affect your work life, it can bleed over into other aspects of your life. Hobbies and other activities can face the consequences of overload. As a person who struggles with ADHD, I’ve found I experience burnout when it comes to my hyper fixations. If you aren’t aware hyper fixations are where one has a single-minded focus on a particular activity, person or object. Such hyper focus can lead towards obsession which eventually leads to emotional numbness (speaking personally).
Going back to burnout, I find that after a period of time I start to feel unmotivated, detached and listless. It can be frustrating when I want to connect to my bookstagram community but I’m unmotivated to read. It’s stressful when I lack creativity to write, especially because that’s where my money comes from.
Honestly speaking, what can you do to prevent burnout?
Burnout and Fixations
As I mentioned earlier, I do struggle with hyper fixations. I always seem to find myself cycling between reading, gaming, and painting/sketching. When it comes to switching in and out of these hobbies of mine it all starts with burnout. First comes reduced productivity, then detachment and low mood.
Now, a lot of times you cannot avoid feeling this; especially if it’s a hobby you’ve been documenting on social media. It’s completely normal but the mistakes a lot of people make is they try to push through the feeling. Burnout isn’t something you can ignore and hope it gets better, you’re just going to exacerbate the situation. The longer you push against stress and fatigue the worse the crash is going to end up (trust me I’m speaking from experience).
To better prepare it’s important to look for the signs I’ve listed above. Burnout isn’t going to hit you all at once but rather in stages. As it starts to build up you can take a step back and try to redirect your energy into another outlet if possible. It’ll help reduce the time you need for a breather before you can get back to doing what you love.
It’s Not Always a Simple Fix
For me, curing burnout can sometimes take days to weeks. Especially when it comes to my book related content, since I post about it all over Instagram. Adding social media to the mix adds it’s own stressful challenges, like following algorithms and staying on top of trends. All of this can really suck the fun out of what initially started as a fun outlet to display your creativity and connect with likeminded people.
I’ve found that setting time limits is extremely helpful. By this I mean setting aside two hours a night to write, read, game or workout. This way you know you’re only expected to do your activity for a set time which can take some of the stress out of content creation. Never feel bad about having to lower the amount of time you spend on a task daily, you know what’s going to keep you motivated and wanting to push forward. If this method isn’t helping, it might be time to separate yourself for a few days; breaks can be the saving grace you need.
Even during your breaks or hobby resets it doesn’t hurt to jot down ideas, concepts or things you still want to accomplish. You can always come back to these when you’re feeling energized and ready to enjoy your hobbies again!
Burnout is a natural part of creation. It doesn’t matter if you post for fun, your business or sell content to larger companies, you’ll most likely experience lower levels of productivity and that’s okay! Treat yourself with kindness, create the space away you so desperately need and look forward to coming back more motivated and creative than before. Everyone deserves to look after their mental health; I promise your followers, friends and family will understand the need for a break. If they don’t they’ll see themselves out and make room for more understanding people!
Remember to look out for yourself and others. If you have other ways to combat burnout, please leave them in the comments below.
