Maybe you’re just tired. Feeling overwhelmed. But feeling burned out is not just when you need a vacation to recharge.
Most likely, it’s when you feel overwhelming exhaustion, frustration, cynicism and a sense of ineffectiveness and failure. That’s how Christina Maslach, a pioneer researcher on burnout, describes it. Maslach says the main causes are:
- working harder than before
- insufficient rewards from work
- lines between work and home blur
- and feeling on-call all the time.
Sound familiar? Or maybe you are surprised, because you didn’t know that these things actually cause burnout. It seems like everyone complains about them, including me.
Let’s take these four causes of feeling burned out one at a time:
1. Working harder than before. On top of blogging there’s social media, Snapchat, Facebook Live, freelance work, and your own projects. As writers and bloggers, we’re working on plans and ideas and goals and visions and…whew. Much as it’s fun, it can also be tiring—and I sometimes feel scattered, unsure, and stressed.
2. Insufficient rewards from work. Most food writers do so as a hobby. Consequently, some start resenting the amount of time it takes when there is little money to be made. And some feel like they’re toiling away in obscurity, trying to get noticed. Yes, we food writers do the work because we love it, but we also like to be noticed and recognized. Often it’s hard to tell whether anyone’s paying attention.
3. Lines between work and home blur. This is a hard one. You love to cook! Is that a hobby? No, it’s work. You love to take photos! Is that a hobby? No, it’s work. You love to post on Instagram. Is that a hobby? No, it’s work. You love to buy pretty things for the table and kitchen. Is that a hobby? No.
4. Feeling on-call all the time. You get a BING whenever someone takes an action on Facebook. You read emails on nights and weekends to keep them from piling up. Fear of missing out (FOMO) compels you to check social media regularly, because you feel pressure to be on top of all the trends and breaking news. Seems like everyone I know is attached to their phones.
Do This Little Exercise
So, if you’re feeling burned out, I have an idea. Remember hobbies and things that give you pleasure? Make a list. Here’s what can’t be on it:
- Going to new restaurants
- culinary travel
- Taking photos of food
- Pinning on Instagram
- Cooking
- Baking
- Taking cooking classes.
How’d you do? If you had trouble coming up with a list, that would be a clue.
Also, if you’ve been burned out, how did you recover? What are your coping strategies?
I was just speaking with someone today who has exited from social media. She said it was like a complete reset and that two days after signing off, has had the most creative thoughts she has had in months. I’m not quite ready to do that but it definitely gives me pause to think about how entwined my personal and public/professional lives are.
It’s strange, isn’t it? Many of my friends are in the business also.
Yes yes and yes. After a hectic hotel high season, writing the cookbook, our wonderful workshop…. I found myself suddenly drained and empty and have not been able to finish one single writing project. I agree with what Kate said above – it’s hard to untangle our different lives and activities especially when one sits down in front of the computer. I want to write but end up with a gazillion “necessary” things in front of me. It is exhausting. What helps is a deadline (set by someone else).
Totally with you on this. Even with deadlines though, I feel like it’s sometimes feast or famine as a freelancer, and there are so many necessary and more urgent things to deal with. See also my neglected blog. Hoping our conference time is a good re-set button!
Indeed. I am very good at getting my work done if someone has imposed a deadline. Whenever I sit down at the computer, I need to read my email, make sure everything is taken care of, and then I can get my own work done. I veered from the usual today when I woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I just got to work. I got in 1.5 hours of quality writing time, which thrilled me. Sometimes I want life to be so streamlined that there is nothing to do but write, but then, I realize that is draining too.
Very timely post (as always!) since I think so many of us are feeling overwhelmed. Trying to do it all, especially for those of us who have come from traditional publishing, can be brutal. I can only speak from personal experience, but since I’ve been a free lancer my entire life, I’ve learned to not only be disciplined, but also to set boundaries. This has certainly helped me to avoid burnout. Setting defined hours and days to do specific work helps. Setting aside time for social media, instead of squeezing it into the in between spaces of your life is also is a good approach. But since there are only 24 hours in a day, I do believe that you have to eliminate certain things, and that is hard to do.
Things that have helped me reconnect to the creative urge to write include delegating the things that I can (admin work mostly, but that takes up a huge amount of time); reducing and/or changing the number of blog posts; having a schedule or some sort of weekly plan for social media.
Those sound like excellent changes that will help bring some sanity to your life. I too try to work at specific hours and times. I don’t set time aside for social media — I’m not that organized. More power to you. I’ve never wanted to schedule posts.
I like to have fun too, but then when something happens during my usual work time, I think, “shouldn’t I be working?” Guilty either way, I guess. I have to get past that. Right now I say to myself, “Nobody died thinking they should have worked harder.” That helps.
But I do think that social media is where people run into trouble. They tend to think of it as either ‘extra’ or else ‘not work’. It is neither. These days it is advertising, and that takes time, effort and concentration. If you try to just fit it in, then you end up with either bad social media, or no life outside of work. To do it well is highly time consuming. I have to say I have little patience for people who tell me they have no time for social media, but then complain that they are not getting work. It’s hard to have one without the other. 🙂
Thanks for your succinct thoughts on this, Dianne.
You are most welcome, Rita. It must help to be partially retired!
Thanks for reminding us about “balance” between and work and home. Always a goal, but hard to achieve. Good advice!
My pleasure, Carol. I don’t know about you but right now there is an extra layer of stress: reading the daily news about our new president’s actions!
I’ve been going through my own healing process from adrenal burnout since about July 2016. From what I have read, it can take about a full year to recover. My anxiety was so bad those first few months that I couldn’t even get out of bed until well after 1pm. I have chosen to go the natural route with herbs to help my healing process as most doctors will give you antidepressants for the condition — no thanks! I’m doing a lot better now, however I am reminded that I am sick if I forget to take my herbs. Turning off my computer after 8pm has helped a lot as has making sure that I am asleep by midnight at the absolute latest. So, yes, taking care of yourself is important well before you reach the burnout phase.
So sorry to read about you in this condition, Halona. It sounds like you are taking good care of yourself. Turning off the computer at night takes discipline, and I used to be better at it. Thanks for the reminder.
I always like reading the comments on these posts, too. A couple things caught my eye. One is boundaries. I was just setting some for myself today as I think imbalance is causing more stress and less productivity. Also the note about taking a social media break. I’ve been waffling with this, but also with some other aspects of the job that feel forced to me. Thinking more about the future and long-term happiness is top on my mind these days! And your note about rewarding after an accomplishment. I’ve got a good space coming up and it’s time for at least a little vacation 🙂
Hi Alisa! I’m always thinking of boundaries as well — what will take up too much energy for too little return. Sometimes I get caught up, but I try to guard my time. I’m not sure about a total social media break, but we could be more disciplined about it, and not just get onto Facebook during a break, when we could be doing a yoga pose instead. Ooh, a vacation! I just returned from a long weekend at a beach house with friends. So restorative. I did keep up with my email but no other work. I believe you are very good at turning work off.
My burnout comes from working SO hard trying to make blogging/writing/food a full time career while working a stressful 40 hour a week job. Burning the candle at both ends gets old, and at times I have to remind myself to slow down and put away the electronics. Not easy when there’s always more to do!
There is always more to do, it’s true. But we have to balance that somehow with doing other fun or meaningful things, so that we can keep up the energy level. Sometimes trying to evaluate whether to do this or that drives me crazy! I feel for you. I only have 1 full-time job.