Burnt-Out Creatives: It’s time to get selfish
I’m a freelance commercial writer, and sometimes I get burnt out.
Words blur into an inky mess on the screen, and commas start being used more liberally and in wholly inappropriate instances. In the heat of deadlines and unpredictable workloads, even the worst of us will pull all-nighters to get things done, while simultaneously — and a minor consideration at that — making up for ill-managed time.
Creatives across the board experience burnout. Heck, burnout is everywhere — schools, the workforce, wherever “here” is, really — as its lionized in popular communications as a veritable character trait.
It’s as if burnout itself is a mindset, and one that makes tons of successful and struggling people mental health statistics.
As creatives, we owe it to ourselves, and to the world we create in our professional and personal lives, to preserve ourselves in a few crucial ways.
Inspirational Self-Care.
Creativity, n. — The mental faculty associated with synthesizing disparate concepts, and using imagination to assemble them into any level of cohesiveness (my definition).
Reading Catcher in the Rye when I was 13 was a turning point for me. The sheer fact that I read that book in my life, at that time, impressed upon me the fate of all my schooling, years of practice, and my current state of affairs.
In short, readying that book was my “huge” moment, the reverberations of which you’re reading right now.
All of the important reading I’ve done throughout the years has also impressed upon me a deeper understanding of the craft. And the books I read today do the same.
As with many — but not all — writers, reading is central to the sustainability of my craft. Whether it’s marketing books, fiction, news clippings, or grammar mistakes in emails, words at-large mean something to me.
For a photographer, it stands to reason that witnessing other photography — like an architect stepping into an undiscovered grotto or hidden pantry — adds to the bank of random ideas your imagination has to work with.
Doing things. Going places. Meeting people. Analyzing their work. All this active phrasing is to say that maintaining what nobody wants to call “inspirational sustainability” is an activity, and one that requires energy.
Sleep, and eat well when you can.
We’ve all got our vices. Someone might even say that creatives — from the worshiped musician to Patsy the Sewing Gal — are more prone to them, and sometimes fall victim.
Doing well for your body is something every person alive owes themselves (the ability to be able to is a fundamental human right, after all). But as my luck writing this essay would have it, a body properly cared for is a more creative one.
Some people need less sleep, and some people need more. No matter who you are, there is an amount that you need. Good sleep makes everything work better, it makes your work better, and it makes work better.
Be quiet.
Research shows that boredom is good.
I know this is going to be annoying because I am going to say that taking even small “boredom breaks” is great for creativity, but it really, really is.
It’s something I learned from a musician friend. As a player myself, I heeded the advice he gave me — “Sometimes, just being quiet lets the music in.”
Your mind never stops working. When you’re staring at walls, your brain is trying to figure out what it’s looking at — if you stare for long enough, you’ll start seeing things.
Just to nail the point home, this whole “automatic-mind” thing plays a part in why solitary confinement is such a cruel and unusual punishment. Prisoners who spend extended periods of time in tiny, cramped rooms often start developing psychotic or otherwise psychologically detrimental mindsets within 72 hours. The brain really can work by itself.
Boredom lets our brain just start connecting things. Sitting quietly with no directive in mind — even for just five minutes — lets the mind conjure melodies and the painter start weaving new combinations of color together. It really works.
Think of it as a form of meditation if you like. If you meditate, that’s also incredibly good for you. But straight boredom time, research shows, is good for creativity.
Do you, always.
Jobs tie creatives to desks for the precious hours they could have been using working on “passion projects” and “oh, it’s nothing”.
And those activities — your own writing, your own photography, your own private creative endeavors — are what make the creative side of you human.
We can all hope that our creative pursuits will bring us endless wealth and boundless jet-setting reach to engagements around the world. I tend to believe that everyone has thought about what a “rock star” version of yourself would look like.
But even if it isn’t making you rich, your non-commercial work is where the progress you’ve made matters the most. Often, this non-commercial work actually inspired us years ago — I used to write stupid love poems in high school, no doubt at least an early and badly-written manifestation of my thrift with the pen.
There are those who truly live completely inspired professional lives, like anyone who does a TED talk. I envy those people, but I’ll keep watching anyway. Unfortunately, I’m not talking to those people in this post.
I’m talking to you, the burnt-out creative.
Our purpose as creatives, at least by the moment of your reading, is to make. It’s to make for ourselves, make for others, and make for those who will consume what we make.
We owe it to ourselves to treat us as best we can. As creatives, our work depends on how we inspire ourselves, how we take care of ourselves, how we rest ourselves, and how we direct our creative faculties to express ourselves.
The most important part is reminding ourselves that we need all of this. The power of asking ourselves “How am I doing?” cannot be understated.
It’s why we have sabbaticals — times we take to reconnect with our creative selves. It’s why I think Steve Jobs said, “The way to ratchet up our species is to get better things to more people — products with spirit and creativity.”
Take care of yourselves out there. The world will be more beautiful if you can.
Reference Guide
- My Website
- UCreative - “The Seven Stages of Creative Burnout” — Julya Buhain, 2014
- Workplace Strategies for Mental Health - “Burnout Response”
- Creative Income - “How to Fill Your Creative Well” — Vicki O’Dell, 2014
- Healthfinder.gov - “Get Enough Sleep”
- The Atlantic - “Boredom is Good For You” — Christopher DeLorenzo
- Penal Reform International - “Solitary Confinement”
- Buffer - “The Science of Side Projects: How Creative Hobbies Improve Our Performance in Everything” — Kevan Lee
