Tackling Personal Projects After A Burn Out

Well, it’s safe to say I barely posted anything at all on here last year! A lot of things happened in 2023 for me personally and life has been pretty busy including starting a new job and trying to look after myself a bit more. Part of that has definitely been trying to deal with a burn out that I feel like I’ve been dealing with for a couple of years now but really got to a high towards the middle of 2023. I definitely think it’s true that if you don’t give yourself a proper break to recover from burn out it will just escalate and continue to get worse which is what I was probably experiencing.

I’ll admit, I’m certainly not out of it yet and feel like I’m more deep in the recovery stage if anything but I did think it would be useful to share what I’ve learned! I also feel like I’ve been going on about struggling with this forever so I do apologise if you’re sick of my feeling sorry for myself haha! Hopefully I’ve begun to understand more about the why now, anyway, here’s some tips from me:

Notice the signs of when you’re starting to burn out.

Now, I just want to preface this and all of the following points that everyone is different and this won’t help everyone! I say that because one of the main signs for me personally, aside from just not enjoying creating anymore, was actually just not enjoying anything. I feel sorry for my partner because I’ve spent the last 2 years especially, not knowing what to do with my spare time; I haven’t wanted to go out, I haven’t wanted to watch something, I would play a game for 5 minutes and get bored, I just didn’t enjoy anything. I think it’s fair to say that definitely indicates some depression too which I think I was experiencing alongside burn out but it was only recently that I realised these were also signs of a burn out.

I was reading some articles on how to overcome burn out (which I’ve done countless times) and I came across one which spoke about when you’re burnt out, your body is trying to tell you what you need. So often when you are burnt out you don’t find fun in creating anymore and that’s because your mind is trying to tell you that you need to do other things for a while. Granted I’ve been through a patch where I’ve not enjoyed anything but I think part of that was feeling guilty for playing a game or spending time with friends when I ‘should’ be working on my next personal project or live streaming on Twitch. In reality, what I needed most was to just fully switch off from creative work, but instead I spent most of my time doing nothing and worrying about not creating enough and not finding the fun in anything anymore, which leads me onto the next point.

Cut your (personal) creative work completely off while you recover.

Something that massively helped me throughout the second half of 2023 especially was just cutting everything creative off, I did a tiny bit of planning here and there but nothing creative in terms of personal work. This is where it will vary person to person though, because my day job is highly creative and I spend the majority of my working day painting and drawing but to be clear, it has nothing to do with my personal projects. Once my work day has been done, I made a deal with myself to not work on any of my own projects regardless of whether I felt like it or not, instead I just did whatever felt right at the time and let my body decide what it needs. 

Sometimes it has involved me sitting there and just watching YouTube or Twitch, which was one thing that used to annoy me the most because it felt like a massive time sink, but sometimes, we do just need to sit and do nothing. I ended up playing a game called TOEM which is on Xbox game pass (it’s amazing) which I picked because I knew it would be fairly short and a chilled experience. I also played Spiritfarer not long after, both of which are not my usual type of game but they were perfect for what I needed at the time; to just immerse myself in a wholesome world. Most of the games I usually play are LONG and it always just feels so overwhelming when I try to get back into them knowing I have another 10 lined up after that. TOEM being relaxed and around 4-5 hours to complete really allowed me to experience a game in a new way and gave me an easy win when I completed it in 2 nights. I also spent some of my time before and after work doing workouts and making healthier meals for throughout the week because my health in general has been starting to suffer. This is a habit I’ve kept up which has been a life saver, I prep my breakfasts and my lunches and workout regularly, it’s not easy but I feel so much better for it and it has a massive snowball effect because I now more often choose the healthier option.

Having this time to reset has been really good for my mental health and allowed me to appreciate that it’s okay to just do nothing and to not be constantly striving for the next thing with my own work. I also started playing Horizon Forbidden West again after getting it when it first came out but never being able to fully enjoy it because of my own mindset and now I ended up spending the majority of my free time loving playing it! The same goes for the Gears of War series, I completed 3-5 over Christmas and I did not once feel guilty for laying on the sofa playing them all day, I was totally immersed in the game for the first time in a long time.

Scrap or shelve a lot of your personal projects.

Another thing that was just stacking up more and more for me were the amount of personal projects I gave myself to complete. Granted some of these were just one off pieces and some were larger scale projects but seeing my to-do list whenever I did try and tackle a personal piece just instantly paralysed me. I definitely do have a problem with starting too many new projects and taking on more than I have time for but that’s a separate issue that I’ve been tackling! I think as artists though, or at least personally, I know I find it really hard to let go of projects or pieces or artwork that I’ve started. Once I’ve started them, I don’t know why but I feel this immense pressure to complete it, even if it’s literally years since I started it sometimes!

Recently though, I did a bit of brain admin and decided what’s most important for me to focus on which I broke down into about 4 different ‘projects’. So none of these are just one off ideas, but more catergories of what I’d like to explore in my own work, one of which is self improvement in general. Although 4 projects is still a lot, there’s only 2 main ones and my focus is figuring out where I can combine these together or with other things like streaming on Twitch or creating blog posts like this for example. 

It’s not that I can’t come back to the projects I’ve archived but removing them from my headspace and to-do lists for now makes it easier to focus on what’s important. Plus, if they were that essential, I would’ve completed them by now! But it’s likely that right now they just don’t align with where my goals are and what I want to produce…and it might be the same for you. I’d highly recommend sitting down and going through your personal projects, shelving or scrapping the ones you haven’t touched in a while and just having a handful you switch between that are getting you closer to your goals.

Then there’s the matter of getting back into creative work again once you feel ready…

Give yourself the easy wins first.

I think giving yourself the easy wins is a really good way to get yourself in the flow again, although one area you shouldn’t really do this is your daily to do list, tackle the hardest thing first! When it comes to overcoming burn out though, starting with small steps can have a really positive and encouraging effect. What I personally did, rather than starting a completely new project (now that I’d scrapped a lot of older projects) was to pick out more recent pieces of work that were close to completion. For example, the shelled creature below had been painted up months before I finished it, but it just needed those final touches. I told myself that I just needed to spend an hour or two pushing through the final steps then it would be complete. Actually doing the work can be the hardest thing to get back into after a burn out, but knowing I only needed to spend an hour or two on it made it much easier. I then went through other projects picking out again, recent projects (that aligned more with where my skill level is now) to complete, making sure to only focus on one or two at a time, even if I wanted to work on something else….I wouldn’t.

I have only got a few pieces finished even in the last month or two but that’s okay because that’s exactly how to stop yourself getting burned out so quickly again, by removing any pressure or expectations.

Don’t rush.

Last but not least don’t rush anything, there is no right period of time to take a break, I think a week or two is a good minimum to really have a break from everything but sometimes that break might go on for months, if not years and that’s fine! It’s funny, even writing this post I’ve had to keep coming back to it (even though I started writing it in September) because I keep thinking I’m ready to dive back into creative work again and I’ve just had to admit that I’m not. However, it’s having that awareness to leave it for a bit longer that’s important. I’d say I had a solid break of about 3-4 months where I barely created in my own time and even now I only create in my own time on certain days even though I sometimes want to every day. I know that if I show up 3-4 days a week on evenings and weekends, those other 3 evenings/days should be dedicated to things like playing games or seeing friends because all of that refreshes me and feeds back into my art.

I know people always say this and it’s definitely something that I’m still struggling with, but it’s crucial to remind yourself that your art isn’t you. If you create something that doesn’t quite work out as you’d imagined or maybe you’re just not feeling it that day, it doesn’t reflect on who you are as an artist. So just take your time if you’re feeling burnt out and make sure to put yourself first, no matter how long it takes.

I’m sure as you can tell, I mostly write these for myself but choose to share them in case they can help someone else. So if you’re suffering with burnout I hope this helps even a little bit and remember to take it easy on yourself!