Burnout
Alex (380 pencils) | Mon, 2009-06-08 15:13I just finished reading this article about burnout at A list apart.
It's something I've come close to at times and, speaking to friends and colleagues, seems to be a recurring theme in the design world. The article offers some suggestions about how to work through it, or avoid it, but I wondered what experience and/or tips people here had. How have you spotted, avoided or survived burning out?
Commenting on this Forum topic is closed.
Honey, I just walk through the flames until I feel a nice cool breeze on my face.
Mara
Did you write that yourself or is that a quote?
Why thank you! :-)
Mara
I've been freelancing for close to 20 years now and burnout will happen. Trust me on this.
If you view burnout as a part of the creative process, you can make it work to your benefit. With me, it's usually an indicator that I either need some downtime or I'm not challenging myself enough, or both.
In either case, I take some time off, switch gears, do something different and productive. I also do fine art, so that usually is a good way to get away from the screen and the phones for a day or two.
Good question. Hope this helps.
Terrell Thornhill
e-zign Design Group
Yep. If there's anything I've learned in my six decades of life so far, it's that stuff comes at you (or out of you) in cycles. You learn to work with your peaks and valleys, and try to stash enough nuts in your attic to tide you over the periods when clients just will not get the rhythm right.
The nice thing about the way most of us (I imagine) work is that every new job is just that: new. Sure, there are similarities, sometimes almost groan-inducingly so, and clients can often seem like clones of each other, but really, we're almost always able to get that start-fresh feeling once a week or so, as the focus of our workday changes from Project 37 to Project 38.
I think this burnout thing is more problematic for those working as, let's say, the one-man/woman house agency for a corporation that has them producing the same damn black-and-Reflex thing over and over again, with minor changes. But see, they get nice salaries, paid vacations, health insurance, free paper clips and other nice things to help them deal with the drudgery.
Come to think of it, I'm surprised we don't hear more about designers "going postal." ;-)
Mara
I'd wager that seeing the 'new' in each project, along with the philosophical outlook on cycles - rather than assuming that the way things are now is indicative of the way things will always be - is what keeps you from getting too close to burning out. They are also probably things that I forgot to do, or see, which brought me close to burning out more than once.
Having worked both freelance and in-house, I think you are right about in-house designers being more likely to feel burnout - though I believe this is, nine times out of ten, because they feel a lack of control over their working life rather than because of the monotony of working within a corporation’s visual ID.
I really like the idea of using the early stages of burnout as an indicator that down-time is required (though perhaps not to the extent that Anonymous suggests below) - or at least time spent doing something different.
My natural inclination (and that of a lot of designers I know) tends to be to work harder at whatever it is I'm doing. Although this sometimes works in the short term, it's never a good idea in the long term.
Thanks for the tip.
Make yourself unavailable for anything work-related from Monday to a Friday, and the flanking weekends. From the first Friday till Sunday go on an outstanding bender (using the inspirational narcotic of your choice) with some friends from the industry who have burnout too. Sleep for the next 3 days and then walk or swim or play the drums for two days after that. For the second weekend, read books, drink herbal tea and eat pulses and grains and yoghurt. Then get stuck back into your work on the Monday. Relax in the knowledge that you'll repeat the process in 8-10 weeks. Burnout will never be the same.
Write a wise saying and your name will live forever – Anonymous.
http://theghostwriterinthemachine.blogspot.com
LOL!
Awesome advice...been there, done that, and smoked the t-shirt.
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
...words of wisdom.
Leaky Penny
Check out what I've been up to lately!
http://petersonjoseph.com
I'm going to print it out and eat it.
-Unknown Artist
For a minute I thought you're talking about the game.
Yes, Burnout is normal. Its means you've overworked yourself. If you can take a holiday, do things you don't usually do. Try to relax a lot. You need to rewire your brain with new experiences so it can give you new ideas.
I thought the OP meant the game too!
(Which has some mighty fine artwork throughout - but that's for another thread entirely).
Miklad
'Keeps losing his mojo, then finding it again'.
So perhaps playing Burnout is a good way to avoid burnout?
Works for me.
But I do sometimes get burnout from playing Burnout to cure my burnout.
(This could go on and on...)
Miklad
'Keeps losing his mojo, then finding it again'.
Mac users burn out much quicker than MS users.
Try a OS Switch people!
http://stevefakeballmer.wordpress.com/
I am not Steve Ballmer pretending not to be me!
I'm sure there's a 'burn twice as bright' retort to that somewhere.
or a "half as bright" comment to anyone who gets overly caught up in either side of that argument.
Yes, fighting with viruses is so much more fun than being burnt out. :D
----
Dirt and Rust
I read the same article last week and thought it was pretty interesting.
For me, burnout can occur whether my work is monotonous or not. Monotony can certainly add the "boring" and "blah" factor to things, but I've also had jobs that were so creatively demanding that I reached a burnout trying to come up with fresh new ideas all the time.
The long and short of it all that I got out of the article was "take care of yourself", and I certainly agree to that. I'm a big fan of traveling vacations myself, and try once a year, at least, to take a week or more off work to go someplace new and explore and have fun.
I find that life just requires balance, and when I'm balanced physically, emotionally and spiritually, I can do my best work. If any of that is starting to veer off kilter and one realm is starting to really REALLY lack attention, then it'll affect my creativity and that's where burnout can rear its ugly head.
I like the concept, though, of not getting down on myself when burnout occurs, either. As others have mentioned, it's just part of the path of life. Instead of looking at it as an obstacle, look at it as an opportunity to make some adjustments - try something new and different.
If any of you have read Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way", you'll appreciate the necessity of filling your creative reservoir through activities that don't necessarily have anything to do with "being creative".
If you haven't checked out "The Artist's Way", I encourage you to see what it's all about.
a couple of the "little" things i try to do to avoid burnout.
always take lunch. sure, there are occasions when you just can't. but don't make that a habit. get up from your desk, go somewhere else, and take an hour. even if it only takes 15mins to eat, spend 45 mins reading, taking a walk, whatever. this is one of my strongest pieces of advice. you need a break every day.
between tasks, take a few minutes to look at something that inspires or informs you. i troll RSS feeds or look at some of my fav inspiration sites or skim an awards book or design mag. whatever it is, take another 5 min break or 3 every day.
if you're inhouse, don't call or IM your workmates. get up from your desk and walk to their cube/office to talk to them. face-2-face is always more effective communication. plus it gets you away from the keyboard for a few minutes.
so not unlike other advice, it's about taking breaks. just more about the smaller chunks on a daily basis.
I'm building these things into my working day right now. It's amazing what a difference just making sure you take a real lunch break has.
Thanks for the ideas!
no problem, happy to help. it *is* amazing how much better you feel and work in the afternoon when you take lunch.
taking lunch is important, besides it is important to eat breakfast in the morning, so you can better think and work...
your health needs food!
Yep, that´s right.
Eating routinely is necessary for a good healthy.