How to beat burnout: 15 easy tips for creators

Burnout is a state of exhaustion often caused by prolonged excessive stress. It's an unpleasant experience that can affect one's emotional, physical, and mental health, and it's especially prominent among content creators. 61% of content creators admit that they have experienced burnout at some point in recent years.

The pressure content creators face to produce content and always be available is intense, and most content creators wear many hats. It's easy to get lost in your business and miss some early burnout signs. However, the sooner you acknowledge you're burned out, the sooner you can deal with the issue and minimize the effect on your creativity and business.

So, let's discuss the signs of creator burnout and the best short—and long-term strategies for overcoming burnout, reigniting creativity, and returning to work rejuvenated and ready to take on a new challenge.

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Recognizing the signs of creator burnout

"The factors that lead to burnout are not just professional ones. They are parenting and social activism, and anything where you need to care and invest, where there are ongoing demands, that are unmeetable expectations, and unceasing demands. That is the formula, no matter what context it's in, for burnout," says Dr. Emily Nagoski, the co-author of the book she wrote with her sister Dr. Amelia Nagoski called Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle.

Recognizing burnout can be challenging, especially when you're not sure what burnout looks like. But the sooner you notice the symptoms, the easier it will be to deal with it. So, here are the symptoms of burnout you should look out for:

• Fatigue: One of the most popular symptoms is extreme fatigue, the sense of never being able to feel rested and energized. You might also notice a reduction in the quality of your sleep or trouble getting enough sleep.
• Lack of motivation and focus: Another prominent symptom of burnout is losing interest in your work and life. You might have trouble focusing on any task at hand, trouble planning, and be unmotivated to work on current projects or take on new ones.
• Decreased creativity: Burnout often affects your ability to create, especially if you feel overwhelmed and unmotivated. You might find brainstorming harder, and creating content might become a real challenge that further fuels your frustration.
• Feeling overwhelmed: When you're burned out, even the smallest thing can feel like the most difficult task on hand. You might notice that you're feeling agitated and overwhelmed with your day-to-day tasks, and even the thought of a new project makes you feel hopeless and stressed.

"Anyone can experience burnout. But your specific way of experiencing it is probably going to be different depending on who you are," explains Dr. Emily Nagoski. "For men, burnout tends to manifest as depersonalization in particular. And for women, burnout tends to manifest as emotional exhaustion."

If you notice any of these signs, you might be experiencing creator burnout. It might be time to step back from your work and finda way to cope with it.

Immediate steps to take when experiencing burnout

If you think you might be experiencing creator burnout, here are the steps you want to take to help you recover and get back to your feed in no time:

1. Take a break. No, really

When struggling with creator burnout, the first thing you want to do is take a step away from your work and business and take a break. Taking a break might be incredibly challenging, but giving yourself space to recover is essential. Immediate burnout recovery requires taking a break from your business—the longer you wait, the harder it will be to recover.

So, find a way to offload as much work and obligation from your schedule as possible. If you can, consider taking a vacation for a week or a few that would allow you to disconnect and rest. Once you're rested, you'll feel much better, regain your focus, and be ready to take other recovery steps.

2. Establish new systems and get help

Being a creator and entrepreneur can be lonely, but it certainly doesn't have to be. One way to help yourself is to ask for help. If you have a team, delegate as many tasks and projects as possible to your team so you can have a little more space to rest. Otherwise, consider hiring help where possible to help you deal with some work tasks like admin.

Also, consider automatic as much as possible. Things like social media, email marketing, and other similar tasks can be easily automated with software. Automating these things will free up time and headspace for you so you can recover from burnout.

3. Find self-care routines that work

Self-care is essential for your wellbeing. If you don't have self-care routines that help you unwind and relax after a long day, you might want to invest your time in establishing a self-care routine that helps you do just that.

The great thing about self-care is that it can look however you want it to — if you enjoy face masks and long hot showers to de-stress, then do that. But self-care can also involve reading a book with a cup of coffee or setting boundaries with your family and team by establishing work and communication schedules.

4. Connect with those around you

Studies show that feeling connected to those around you has a huge positive impact on your health and wellbeing. When recovering from burnout, it's essential to find the time to connect with your friends, family, and even strangers in the coffee shop. Every interaction helps reduce stress and feel safer and rejuvenated which are crucial for burnout recovery.

Plus, connecting with your loved ones and new people can be a phenomenal way to find meaning in life and even spark your creativity back to life if you have been struggling with that during your burnout. 

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Strategies for long-term recovery

How long it will take you to recover from burnout will depend on many factors, such as your personality, circumstances, and the severity of your burnout. We already discussed some of the immediate things you can do to help you recover in the short term, but it's also important to discuss a long-term burnout recovery strategy, which will also be useful when it comes to preventing creator burnout in the future.

1. Understand the stress response cycle

Understanding stress and how it works in our bodies is very important. First, stress and a stressor are two different things, and a stress response cycle is how we're wired to process stress in our bodies.

In pre-historic times, a stressor was a dangerous animal, like a tiger. Let's say you venture outside your village to forage and encounter a tiger or a bear. Your body reacts to the stressor (a tiger or a bear) and goes into flight mode (alternatively, fight or freeze mode). There is a surge of hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, which help you run away from the threat. Once you're back at the village, and the stressor (the tiger or a bear) is gone, you laugh or cry or jump from happiness and connect with the other villagers by hugging or telling them a story of how you escaped. It signals to your body that the stress has passed and you're safe.

"That's the complete stress response cycle: it has the beginning when you perceive the threat, a middle, where you do something with your body, and the end, where your body receives the signal that it has escaped from this potential threat, and your body is now a safe space to be," explains Dr. Emily Nagoski.

To prevent burnout in the future, it's essential to understand the stress response cycle and how to close it anytime you experience stress in your life and work. Once you learn to recognize what's happening in your body and at what times, you can be much more efficient at finishing the stress response cycle and minimizing the damage of chronic stressors you encounter daily.

2. Set realistic goals

By definition, burnout "is that feeling of being overwhelmed and exhausted by everything you have to do while still worrying that you're not doing enough," says Dr. Emily Nagoski. To void creator burnout, you might want to review your business goals and adjust them to be more realistic and achievable.

Consider utilizing goal-setting strategies like S.M.A.R.T., designed to help you determine achievable and measurable business and personal goals so you can track and celebrate progress and minimize feeling overwhelmed. Having more manageable goals that allow you to move forward will help you feel more confident and balanced in your business.

3. Create a balanced schedule

As an entrepreneur and a content creator, it's very easy to get lost in your work and completely abandon the notion of having a working schedule separate from your personal life. However, creating a balanced work and life schedule is essential to decrease your chances of creator burnout in the future.

So, play around with different options for your work schedule and make sure to leave enough time off for yourself to spend time with family and loved ones, work out, or simply engage in hobbies you love. Following a schedule will help you show up to work energized and have a more fulfilling and satisfying life. 

4. Learn to prioritize

It's normal to want to do everything at once. And while you can have everything you desire if you set your mind to it, you might not be able to do it all at once — that's where prioritization comes in handy.

When deciding on what projects to work on, carefully weigh which should be a priority and which can wait. Also, review your tasks and be ruthless when it comes to eliminating ones that are not essential to growing your business right now. Your time, energy, and mental capacity are valuable resources, so treat them like such.

5. Focus on your health and wellness

"Many people's minds are so invaded by forgetfulness, despondency, irritability, and insanity because of their poor physical condition that their knowledge is actually driven out of them,"  Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said. Greeks believed that for the mind to thrive, one must train one's body and vice versa.

Taking care of your body through movement and nutrition can greatly increase your chances of being more productive while minimizing your chances of being burned out. Movement can be a great way to close the stress response cycle, and wellness routines such as mindfulness can completely transform how you show up in your day-to-day life.

So, if you want to prevent burnout in the long run, consider investing in health and wellness routines that help you support your mind, body, and soul and avoid excessive chronic stress.

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Reconnecting with your creative self

As we already discussed, burnout can significantly impact your creativity as a content creator and entrepreneur. Once you've recovered, you might notice that your creativity is slowly returning. However, if you still struggle to find your creative self after a burnout, here are some things you might want to try to reignite creativity:

1. Explore new hobbies

Running a business and managing day-to-day responsibilities is no joke. Most adults consider hobbies something only children engage in, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Exploring new hobbies can be the best way to find daily joy and reignite your creativity.

So, list hobbies you have always wanted to try or hobbies that sound fun. It can be anything from painting, coloring, pottery, reading, gaming, and more. Allow yourself to take up any hobby you desire and dedicate some time to that hobby.

2. Find inspiration

Finding inspiration as a creator is so important, and one of the best ways to boost your creativity is to find new places and things that inspire. It can be as small as a flower or a restaurant sign you pass on your daily walk. Revisit your favorite movies, TV series, books, and cartoons from childhood. Allow yourself to fully immerse yourself in your inspiration sources, even if initially hesitant. Being curious and open-minded is the key to reigniting creativity after burnout.

3. Reintroduce creating into your routine

If you took a break from creating while dealing with burnout, it's normal to feel like returning to content creation is challenging – you're definitely not alone. It might be smart to start reintroducing creation into your routine slowly. Instead of jumping right in where you left off, start with small tasks and projects without deadlines and other pressure. Getting back into your routine slowly will be less shocking to your system, giving you an opportunity to learn how to enjoy the process again.

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Returning to your business with renewed energy

Returning to work after burnout doesn't have to be stressful or challenging. As long as you're returning to work in a mindful way, you'll be back on track in no time and better than ever.

1. Review your goals

Setting realistic goals once you're ready to return to work is very important. It's natural for us to want to do everything at once, and that can easily add a lot of pressure that will eventually lead to burnout.

So, the first step when returning to work is to review your goals and set new ones that are realistic and measurable while still getting you closer to where you want your business to be in the future.

2. Implement new productivity systems

Boosting productivity without overextending yourself is key to preventing burnout. Once you're ready to return to work, assess how to improve your productivity systems to help you do more with less.

3. Maintain balance

Balance is key to a happy life and a healthy business. So, when you're back to work, remember to be mindful about how much time you spend on your business, take regular breaks, and remember to pay attention to your health and wellness. A healthy mind and body will help you show up better in your business and accomplish your goals without burning out.

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Expert advice on managing burnout

Jenna Kutcher is a successful online course creator and entrepreneur who runs a seven-figure business and has a team of people helping her with her podcasts and online courses. Yet, even with all the experience running a business and the help, she isn't immune to burnout—back in April this year, she shared that she's struggling with burnout on her podcast.

Aside from being honest and vulnerable about her reasons for struggling with burnout, and not for the first time in her entrepreneurial career, she also shared how she's trying to get out of that exhausting state. Kutcher seriously took the expert burnout advice, such as finding new hobbies (learning to bake sourdough bread), leaning into her friendships, and taking more breaks. 

A huge YouTube content creator, Thomas Frank, also experienced burnout and got out of it in 2019. His reason for feeling burnt out was the insane pressure he put on himself to create engaging, high-quality videos for his YouTube channel and having a whole team rely on him being the most productive and efficient version of himself.  

One of the first things Frank did was to cut back on his work and project schedule. He immediately noticed that his drive and passion for creating and taking on new, exciting projects returned. "I had a lot of interest for life in general coming back," he shares.

Cutting back on your number of commitments is the first thing Frank recommends content creators do. Just knowing that your workload will be smaller in the near future when you start planning what projects to let go of will have an immediate positive effect, clearing up mental space for you.

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Adapting to changing algorithms and trends

Content creators wear many hats and often have to change and pivot their business and strategy to ensure it is relevant and thriving. Navigating trends as a creator and adapting to ever-changing algorithms are among the reasons why many content creators face burnout.

While pivoting and adapting to changes is challenging and can cause discomfort and fatigue, it's an essential part of life and business. So, to avoid burnout and make the change as effortless and stress-free as possible, consider implementing structures in your business that allow for time and space to change when needed.

It's smart to dedicate time and space in advance to reviewing your business every quarter and identifying what's working and what needs improvement. The more flexible and open you are to unexpected changes, the more successful you'll be at handling whatever life throws at you.

Mental health resources and support

If you're struggling with burnout symptoms, don't hesitate to find support for burnout and mental health. Many mental health resources for creators are available online, including blog posts, podcast episodes, and YouTube videos that offer valuable advice.

However, if you feel like online resources are not enough, don't hesitate to reach out to a therapist, either online or locally. You can start by using tools like BetterHelp, an app that connects you with a therapist so you can start therapy as soon as possible from the comfort of your own home.

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