On Creative Burnout & Five Steps to Help Get Back to Your Flow
Burnout is real. In our society we talk about burnout a lot in the context of being overworked and disliking our jobs. But what happens when we’re able to turn something we love into our job? Such is the case for many creatives who have the opportunity to turn their passion into a career.
For many reasons, there’s a lot of pressure in identifying as a creative, particularly when you’re living in a creativity-driven city like Los Angeles. It’s often responded to with some variation of, “You’re so lucky!” “It must be so easy to go to work every day!” “You must never get sick of your job!” And on many days, those things may be absolutely true! But that doesn’t mean creatives don’t get burnt out. What happens when something we’re passionate about becomes a source of burnout and stress? What happens when we’re expected to keep churning out creative project after creative project, and our livelihood depends upon it?
signs of creative burnout
Creative burnout is more common than most people think, especially because we don’t often talk about it. How do you know if you’re experiencing creative burnout? You might notice you’re having a particularly difficult time focusing on your work. You might be feeling uninspired, or disliking everything you create. You might notice you’re annoyed by people around you who seem particularly inspired and motivated. It’s also possible that you’re coping in some ways that are unhealthy, like drinking more than you usually do. Most noticeably, you might realize that something you usually love and feel incredibly passionate about has instead become a source of stress, or you may feel like you no longer care about or want to engage in that passion at all. All of these feelings are compounded by the fact that as a career professional, you need to continue to force out creative work in order to make money.
So why is creative burnout happening? And what can you do to work through this? Read on for steps to help manage feeling burnt out and some things you can try right now!
“your self-worth is not defined by your creative success.”
five steps for managing creative burnout
Identify how you feel
The first step is to acknowledge what’s happening and send yourself a little extra compassion. It is okay to be feeling this way. Your feelings are valid, and even though you usually love your work, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. You’re not a machine—you can’t produce the exact same amount of work every week—and what’s going on for you matters. Try not to criticize yourself or judge your experience. Many people struggle with these feelings and feel creatively blocked. Instead, try to identify and name your feelings and practice speaking to yourself with the same tenderness that you would for a friend navigating a similar situation.
Take a break from work & prioritize rejuvenation
There’s usually not one solid reason this is happening--you can often find a handful of reasons for it. In our capitalistic society, we’re taught that we should be working all of the time. And when you’re feeling particularly passionate about a project, that might be easy to do. But when you’re feeling burnt out, subscribing to this narrative and pushing yourself to keep working through your burnout is likely making things worse. When your career is your passion, a work-life balance can feel like a joke. Your work often is your life. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to take time away from your job to rejuvenate. Sometimes, when you’ve been particularly successful at a point in your creative endeavors, following that up can be terrifying (What if I can’t do it again? What if everything else I make isn’t as good?). In this way, success can even sometimes be a source of insecurity and burnout.
Consider spending time away from your projects. Think of things that fill up your tank--since being burnt out means you’re probably running on empty--and do those things. Spending some time in nature? Cuddling with a pet? A game night with friends? Taking time alone to read a good book or binge watch a good (or guilty pleasure) show or movie? All of these are great ideas. It’s important for you to allow yourself this time without feeling guilty about it. Know that you need this time in order to be productive later, if you feel you need to find a way to justify it to yourself.
Set boundaries—the importance of saying “no”
Try to set some personal and professional boundaries. Does that mean saying no to a project? Or no to spending time somewhere you don’t want to go or with someone you don’t have the energy to be around? Setting boundaries is difficult, and it’s something I spend a lot of time working on with clients and for in my personal life. If setting boundaries is difficult for you, try starting slow, block out chunks of “me time” in your calendar, and if a commitment or invitation comes up that you don’t want to go to, say you’re busy (they don’t have to know that you’re busy with your scheduled me time!). This might feel particularly difficult at first, but know that it gets easier to take care of yourself the more you practice it.
If setting boundaries or managing other aspects of your experience as an artist feel tough on your own, consider reaching for support from therapists who specialize in working with creative folx.
try scheduling creative time
You may also try blocking off some time for your creativity without expectation and just seeing where that goes. Make sure you pick a manageable chunk of time, like 30 minutes or an hour (scheduling a 4+ hour time block is totally cheating). If that means you schedule an hour and spend it staring at a blank canvas or a blank page, that still counts. The important part of that is stopping at the end of your scheduled time. If you’ve become inspired, feel free to keep going until you need a break, but it’s important that you don’t spend your hour doing nothing, then decide that means you need to force yourself to keep trying for another hour (if anything, that’s telling you that you need a little more refill time). It might surprise you, but sometimes having an official end time to your creativity can help get the ball rolling. If you’re really stuck and allowing yourself to do nothing for your chosen chunk of time is unbearable for you, try going back to basics. What did you do when you were first learning your craft? Did you use some of those random story-writing prompts? Did you just draw shapes? Try something that seems too easy for you and go from there.
practice being “bad” at something creative
Another thing I’d encourage you to try (and this may seem counterintuitive, but stay with me) is to do something creative badly. If this means doing something in your creative medium badly, go for it. Write the worst script you can think of about the most outlandish thing you can dream up. Draw with your nondominant hand. Sing a song that is totally wrong for your voice. Sometimes, it’s too difficult to let go of our expectations of ourselves, so if that’s not accessible to you, try practicing a creative medium that is entirely out of your comfort zone. Are you a singer who has no artistic skills? Grab a paint brush! An artist who has never written a script before? Check out a writing prompt! Expect it to be bad. Anticipate it being bad. Embrace the bad. Sometimes doing something creative that is totally out of our comfort zone can remind us how fun creativity is. You might be surprised at what comes out when you allow yourself to have fun and play.
More than anything else, I encourage you to acknowledge your feelings and know that however you’re feeling is valid. YOU are valid, and your self-worth is not defined by your creative success. Feelings of creative burnout and stuckness are so normal! I encourage you to be gentle and kind with yourself, because you definitely deserve it.
Courtney Rago is an empath, a critical thinker, a creative, and a questioner. They help creative individuals to get to know and celebrate all parts of themselves and their talents. They are passionate about supporting families and partners to build healthy relationships and feel more nourished by their intimate connections. Courtney firmly believes that we have the power to rewrite who society tells us we “should” be, challenging the status quo, and radically celebrating ourselves as an act of resistance. At heart, Courtney is a Jersey kid who talks fast, walks fast, drinks too much coffee, and reallyyyy misses Yankee games and NY bagels.
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