There’s no doubt about it. Creating content as a content creator can be challenging work.
And even though people on the outside may assume that it looks easy, it’s not. It can be both physically, mentally & sometimes even financially demanding.
What’s more, is that as a content creator, you’re typically your own boss, meaning you need to be in the right headspace to motivate yourself to work.
And if you’re suffering from content creator burnout, your work can take a big hit. As a result, so can your income… Which is certainly not good.
So in this blog post, we will share some tips on you can avoid & overcome content creator burnout to help you stay motivated & successful.
What Is Content Creator Burnout?
In case you’ve landed here without fully understanding what content creator burnout actually is, it basically refers to an accumulation of stress in content creators that ultimately leads to them becoming completely demotivated with their work & potentially, even their life.
Some content creators describe their burnout as an inability to get on with their daily tasks. For example, they find themselves procrastinating a lot rather than actually creating content that will drive the growth of their business.
Other content creators describe their burnout as an overwhelming feeling of just not having the energy to do anything at all – including even getting out of bed.
As you can see, it obviously affects different content creators differently, but the overall signs of content creator burnout are pretty similar.
And it’s something nearly every content creator will be faced with at some point throughout their journey.
Even myself & Simon here at Commission Academy have suffered from burnout in the past. Thankfully we overcome it & I’ll reveal our tips to avoid it below.
How To Avoid Content Creator Burnout
As mentioned above, myself & Simon (the instructors here at Commission Academy) are no strangers to content creator burnout.
But the good news is that you can learn from our mistakes, so here are our top tips for avoiding content creator burnout:
Don’t Work Too Hard
This may sound like an obvious one, but many content creators work WAY too hard.
This mostly comes from the social pressure of the “hustle” mindset & the idea that you need to be succeeding fast to be successful.
The reality is you don’t – and the best businesses are built over time. After all, as the good old saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
So rather than working all hours of the day every day & putting pressure on yourself to succeed fast. Be realistic & don’t over-exert yourself.
Set Strict Work Hours
It’s very rare to see content creators setting strict hours & this is, in my opinion, one of the absolute most important steps for avoiding content creator burnout.
If you don’t make a firm, clear separation between your work life & non-work life, you’ll get stressed because you’ll get the feeling of “always working”.
And here’s the craziest thing. When you set strict work hours (such as 9am to 5pm), you’ll find that you actually become way more productive.
Then, as soon as you finish, you’re finished – no more checking your business stats or responding to emails… Just enjoy some downtime until the next day.
Take Complete Breaks
Another big issue with content creators is they believe they’re taking breaks when in actual fact, they’re not really taking any breaks at all.
For example, there are many content creators that will believe they’re taking a day off because they’re not creating content, but they’re continuously checking stats and/or responding to messages, etc.
So make sure that when you take a break, it truly is a break. Give yourself a yearly holiday allowance & use them just like you would with a job.
Remove Financial Pressure
One of the biggest causes of stress & burnout in business is financial pressure.
So, if you find yourself struggling to make ends meet with your business revenue alone, as tough as it may feel, it would be wise to take on part-time employment.
That way, you remove the pressure of “having to make it work”, & you can use the income from your part-time employment to get by whilst continuing to grow your business in your spare time.
Then, when you’re ready, you can leave your employment & work on your business full-time again.
Create A Plan & Routine
You can easily get frustrated without a plan or routine, but by planning your days & making sure you know exactly what you’re doing on each day, you’ll find it much easier.
Some people prefer to plan weeks in advance, but I personally like to put aside 30 mins at the end of each day to write down my tasks for the next day.
Leverage A Team
As a content creator, you’ll typically start out working for yourself & by yourself. However, as you grow, this will become more & more difficult.
There’s a point in your business where you’ll need to outsource tasks & leverage a team.
For example, photo editing, video editing, article creation and social media posting. All of those tasks can easily be outsourced.
This way, your business becomes more passive & requires less work on your behalf, allowing you to focus on the most important tasks & remove stress.
Overcoming Content Creator Burnout
If you’ve already found yourself suffering from content creator burnout & wondering how (or if) you can overcome it, the good news is that you can, and we have the answer.
The most important thing that you need to do is take a well-deserved break.
As much as it feels like the “right thing to do” to keep on trying to push through it & continue creating content, that will only make your burnout worse.
So, put things to one side completely, and take at least a week out to fully de-stress.
Whether you need to lie in bed for a week, hit the gym for a week or go on a holiday, do whatever feels right for you – but don’t try to work.
I understand it’s not easy, but it’s important.
Sometimes it feels like you can’t stop working on your business & that it’ll crash & burn if you take time out, but the reality is that it won’t.
It’ll be right there waiting for you to push forward with it once you’re back from your break & when you return to it, you’ll be much more motivated.
Alongside that, you should take the time to relook at your current routine & take the steps that we outlined in the previous section to make sure you’re able to avoid it going forward.
Try and ask yourself, what went wrong?
Were you working too long hours? Was there too much financial pressure? Etc.
Once you stop & think about it, the reason will likely become clear as to why you ended up feeling burned out & so when you come back, just avoid falling into that same trap.
The Bottom Line
From the outside, people think that creating content is an easy job. Well, we’re here to tell you that it’s not as easy as it seems.
Suffering from content creator burnout is very real & as you may have found, it can be a rut that ends up being difficult to get out of.
So, hopefully, if you have been suffering from content creator burnout, this article has helped you out & given you some practical tips to get out of it.
If, of course, you have any additional questions or comments, don’t hesitate to leave them below.
And as well, if you have any extra tips, do feel free to leave those, too.
Also, if you’d like to get the most out of your content & learn how you can not only maximize traffic but also maximize revenue, be sure to sign up for our free training before you leave.
