Signs You’re Facing Creator Burnout and How to Prevent It From Happening

If you have been a content creator for while, you have probably experienced the ebbs and flows of burnout. 2021 was actually one of the hardest years for me and if you follow my YouTube Channel, you probably saw the entire thing happen. But, you can prevent burnout by looking out for the signs and taking action - which is what we will be chatting about in today's blog.

What is burnout?

WebMD describes burnout as a form of exhaustion caused by constantly feeling swamped. It usually happens to everyone at some point. Our lives get busy with working, helping others, taking care of our families, and more. Because of that, we sometimes get too busy and forget to take a step back and rest. That is when burnout can occur.

The same happens to us as a content creator, right? We have big goals we want to achieve - your goal might be to make a full-time income as a content creator and so you focus all of your time working towards that goal. Creating content, responding to emails, reaching out to brands, creating products - for some of you, all on the side of a full-time job. Sometimes we focus so hard on the end goal and keep ourselves so busy, that we forget to prioritize our happiness.

Signs you are facing burnout

Most of the time, we don’t know we have hit burnout until it already has happened, but there are a few signs you can look out for to stop burnout in its tracks.

You are creatively blocked.

We all struggle on occasion with not feeling creative, but that doesn’t always mean you are on the road to burnout. But, if you sit down to do your creative work and nothing is happening, or you start feeling overwhelmed, anxious or even annoyed - this might mean that you have gone beyond just feeling a mental block and you might be heading towards burnout.

You’re working non-stop, without tangible results.

Something that happens to me when I am heading towards burnout is I start spending my time on tasks that aren’t really moving the needle in my business. Here is what that might look like - I might get on my laptop to start editing a YouTube video, but then I see 10 emails in my inbox that need responses, so I start doing those. Maybe one of them is a brand deal and so I need to hop into my Notion content calendar to check what videos I have coming up. While I am in there, I start rearranging my content calendar, maybe make some notes on ideas I have for videos in the next month or two, and so on. This might happen because you are avoiding the original task at hand because you are just not feeling up to it - which might mean you are already feeling those beginning signs of burnout.

You want to quit.

If you are getting to the point of wanting to throw in the towel and just drop everything, you might have made your way to burnout town. I know this is definitely one of the signs I faced when I hit burnout last year, I was so over it, that I completely pivoted my YouTube channel to an entirely different topic and then soon realized that wasn’t the right decision for me - I was just in such a bad state, at the time - it seemed like the only solution to find happiness again.

My piece of advice, when you feel like you want to quit and just stop being a content creator, just wait. Wait until you get out of burnout, wait for a better day, and then ask yourself again if you want to quit.

You start feeling emotionally depleted.

We have talked a lot about imposter syndrome on this podcast, which is definitely something that can start arising during burnout, but it goes deeper than that. You might have those same feelings of failure and self-doubt, but you might also feel helpless, trapped, defeated, a loss of motivation, and even a feeling of detachment. Burnout is a lot more serious than folks probably think. Ignoring these systems and “pushing through” them anyway might lead to serious burnout.

Your body is just done.

Though some people might view burnout as something that mostly affects our mental health, it can also affect our physical health as well. WebMD says that burnout can cause feeling tired and drained most of the time, lowered immunity, frequent illnesses, frequent headaches or muscle pain, and change in appetite or sleep habits. Burnout is a gradual process. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it can creep up on you. If you start feeling a combination of these physical symptoms, along with some of the emotional systems we mentioned - you might want to take a step back.

How to prevent burnout

Now that you are familiar with some of the signs and symptoms of burnout, you can start planning ahead. If you start feeling all or most of these symptoms, it’s time to start evaluating all of the areas of your creator business and find some ways to help prevent or stop burnout.

Scale back or hire help.

The first thing you should do is find where you can scale back in your business or if at this stage, you could hire help. You are only one person and you can’t do it all. If you are not at the stage where you can hire someone to help you part-time with some of your smaller or more specific tasks, you might need to scale back the amount of work you are giving yourself right now. If you are posting two videos a week, maybe scale it down to one video per week for now. If you are posting 5 days a week on Instagram, maybe do 3 days a week instead. You can always do more in the future as time and resources begin to open up.

Say no and set boundaries.

I am a “say yes to everything” type of person and that is because it is in my nature to help others and make them happy, which isn’t a bad thing - but you have to remember to set boundaries for yourself and say no when needed. If you get asked to do something that is not going to benefit you and your business, or if you truly don’t have the time - you have to say no. For example, if you take on clients as a means to make an income in your business, but you are already feeling a bit overwhelmed with your workload, it might be time to start a waiting list or turn folks away.

Take real breaks.

So many people avoid taking breaks because they think it will eat into their productivity, but did you know that rest can actually increase your productivity and efficiency? It’s easier said than done, but you need to take intentional time away from your work so that you can actually feel the effects of resting. If you can, try taking a full week off with NO work - if that doesn’t work for you, maybe take a day or afternoon off here and there, but the point is - take REAL time off. Don’t check emails, don’t brainstorm content ideas, don’t do anything except what truly fuels you personally - so you can come back to work fully refreshed.

Plan for the future.

I know we are always in a hurry to reach our goals and dreams, but you have to remind yourself that this is a marathon, not a sprint! We need to lay the foundation of our creator businesses and make sure we are paving the way for us to be successful in the future. Even though you might think you need to hurry to reach these goals, facing burnout is just going to cause a huge disruption in your long-term success, so it’s better to take your time on the journey and finish big. This really goes back to reevaluating your business and what is truly essential to reach your goals; focus on those essential steps and only take on what you can handle.

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Taking a break and listening to your body is not being lazy or unproductive, it is the most effective way to protect the longevity of your business. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is how it will always be - just take a breath, make the needed changes, and prioritize your well-being. The rest will fall into place.