Creative burnout. Another story

The industry of success is a highly competitive one. We are constantly pressured to learn, predict trends, be one step ahead of our competition. In this high-intensity environment, it is easy to become drained.

Creatives of all ages and backgrounds experience professional burnout. This post is about how I lead myself into a burnout and the ways that help me get out of it.

Background

I need to give you some background here. My professional life in design started in 2013 when I was at my 2nd year at the university. For 4 years my main goal was to balance classes, personal life, and work. The challenge was exciting until recently — when I found myself unable to perform well enough and to enjoy what I do.

How I led myself into this

1.Solitude

I remember the time, when I identified something was not going right. I was not getting enough joy from work, I was not liking the approaches in the company and I was ready to move on.

After working in the crowded office, remote job seemed to be a refreshing opportunity. And for a while it was. But a comfort zone bubble does not work for creatives. We have to observe people and their behavior in order to create better products.

Working alone made me feel how fragile my assumptions were, so I became hesitant about my design decisions.

2. Perfectionism

Always in doubt about my designs, I still tied to create something perfect — think of every possible use case; go through the proper UX process; create the most appealing UI,…

Failure is inevitable in design, but it made me even more vulnerable.

3. Processes that do not work

I have always been the process freak. Development experiments are not cheap, and not all companies are interested optimizing workflow at all.

Being a part of the big company, my strategy (spoiler: WRONG one) was to create my own microcosm — design flow that would be perfect. I learned to ignore the mess outside of it.

Result: I only became more frustrated when things got screwed up in the later phases. I was not able to fix them but felt responsible for the failure.

4. Unhealthy habits

This includes a lot of things. The ones that I confess of:

• Forcing myself to finish the task even if I can’t come up with good ideas;
• Not moving/exercising enough;
• Crying my eyes out because of someone’s criticism;
• Talking to stupid people;
• Not speaking out when I have something to say;
• Not spending enough time with friends and family.

These are only a couple things on my personal list. There could be a lot more.

5. Watching others

Social media gives us multiple opportunities to observe others. Others’ professional success and failure were always the reason to start comparing. Am I better? Am I ever going to reach this level? Am I a failure if I don’t know how to do this? The pressure to keep up was overwhelming.

“You are too unique to compare fairly.” Joshua Becker

How I came out of it

I have not. Not yet. But I am trying to drag myself out of the burnout ditch in various ways. I’ve developed a couple rules for myself.

1.Don’t work long hours.

Long hours I spend at the desk do not do good for me or the client. A tired creative professional = poor ideas and decisions.

“Long hours are not a badge of honor, they are a sign of failure, pure and simple.” Paul Boag

2. Only rate personal progress.

Professional titles do not always show skill level; neither do tests. To have valid information about my own progress, I write plans. That way I can clearly see what I could manage a year ago and what I am capable of today.

3. Educate in various fields.

I try talking to people about music and movies, bring up topics that interest me. Even-high level knowledge in various fields can be extremely helpful when working with clients. You just never know, when you’ll need to hold a conversation about the latest Tesla model.

4. Continue working no matter what.

Sketch, engage in a freelance project, create a website… When things get tough and I feel overworked, I switch to something different and keep going one step at a time.

5. Be selfish.

How I feel about myself is all that matters in the long term, as it influences my professional confidence and motivates me to continue learning and progressing.

Screw business and play if you want to.

“… burnout is not a matter of weakness. It catches up with the most powerful among us, the ones that we’d never expect to fall.” Marie-Cécile Paccard

I accept the fact that my creativity gets injured easily. I feel tired, bored, angry, vulnerable, small, stupid, frustrated, used up,… sometimes all of those at the same time. I am working on it just like other creatives do. I hope one day I’ll increase my emotional intelligence and become my stronger self. I will let you know when I get there 😺