Balancing Work and Creativity: A Plan to Combat Creative Burnout
It’s happening all over the country…
Teachers are reporting back for professional development, team-building activities, and setting up classrooms to prepare for students to return.
To be honest, I had a mild bit of anxiety returning this year.
I began my posts for the summer saying that I spent a large part of last school year feeling burnt out. So, I wanted to share some thoughts on that and my plan for doing better this year.
Life Happens
Up until the past year or so, I knew exactly how to balance work and creativity. I always knew how to do it with any job title in the past. I’d simply find a way to volunteer and integrate it into the work I did for my employer. For example, last year, I was able to use my calligraphy skills toward the eighth grade formal.
Remember these?
That wasn’t so long ago.
But, with the addition of another grade level that required a more hands-on approach, it was the one of the few projects I did last school year that I felt was really creatively satisfying…and few might be stretching it.
As someone who needs to create for self-care, I always hope to find opportunities across the day to replenish my creative juices, as always. But, as our small school expands, I found my time to balance creativity with the work load sometimes grows smaller.
Planning for Creativity
The best way I know to be sure you get to do the things that are important is to plan them into your day…To try to make them part of the natural course of business. Below, I’m personalizing a really cute desk planner I found by Day Designer this year so I can see some things at a glance without having to whip out my main planner.
It’s cute, right?
I’ve had a planner for years. I got one when responsibilities started piling up and I didn’t have enough scrap paper in my head to keep up with it all. A planner helped lay everything out for me. I learned that anything I wanted to make time for, I could just add to the plan.
What NOT To Do
I can handle creating after school, on occasion…It really depends on what’s going on at the time. We started back to work, but since there are no students in the building yet, I stayed up a little later to practice freehand engraving this bottle this past week.
Fun!
But, working into the night during last school year was hit and miss-and more miss than hit. 😬 By the end of a day of teaching, I was spent. And since my own teenager resisted falling asleep at any normal time (shout out to all my autism moms)…I was lucky if I made it to bed by 11:30 pm. I was even more more fortunate if she stayed asleep through the night. For nearly the entire year, I was perpetually fighting drowsiness the next day.
Creating nightly was a no-go. And I have news for you…As nocturnal as I can be during the summer, being sleepy all the time while working certainly doesn’t help to stave off creative burnout. It can actually exacerbate it. Ask me how I know.
Last school year, I also found out that some of my eating choices and lack of whole body movement were large contributors to my overall feeling of dis-ease.
So what’s a working creative to do then?
Well, we all get twenty-four hours in each day. When many of those hours are spoken for, we have to be even wiser with the rest because you’ll never see those hours again. Nobody wants to look back on their time here and feel it slipped away before they accomplished their personal goals…And whenever we do arrive at the place where we are reaching them, we want to be healthy enough to enjoy it.
I believe it’s important to practice self-care and gratitude whenever possible, and to focus on big picture creative goals.
Practice Self-Care
While I don’t like having myself on my mind all the time…I realize that if I’m not okay, I can’t help anyone else and my creativity suffers. Can’t be an art teacher when you’re not creative. 🤷🏽♀️ The moral of the story I relayed about my woes from last school year is, if you still work full-time, whenever you choose to plan your creativity, don’t neglect the essentials. Sleep and adequate rest is definitely one of them along with eating well and getting some movement into your day. All of these things take time away from your time to create, I know. But, I’m 100% certain that they make you a happier and much more productive creative when you do get to it.
So, the plan this year:
Since creativity is one of my main means of self-care, I am aiming to set aside practice time at least two to three times a week on my lunch break. It may mean taking colder lunches to work so I won’t need to be in line for the microwave. 😕 But, it might work to keep my hands warm and my heart happier until I get longer stretches of time. ❤️
Sleep is an ongoing challenge at this time. But, we’ll see if the child will cooperate better with her routine this year. 🙏🏾
I took on a healthy eating program at the start of this calendar year that has significantly improved how I feel in my own skin. Definitely more of that.
I also began walking outside for fifteen minutes last year during my lunch breaks to breathe in fresh air, give myself a brain break, and to improve my overall health. On the days I don’t practice, I’ll still be at it. For others, this could look like quiet time, meditation, journaling (another something I enjoy), etc.
Practice Gratitude
I also think, as contrary as it can be to average human tendencies, that practicing gratitude helps to avoid creative burnout. It’s like chicken soup for our emotions. It helps keep a light on on the inside so that wherever we draw our passion from is full of light and motivating rather than dark and discouraging.
I’m grateful that I have employment at all. Given the many shortages that are still persisting in this country, I can definitely be grateful for that.
I am also grateful for the opportunity to do things I love doing even in the middle of the noise of life.
For instance, since my husband and I are co-caregivers to my younger child, my family usually does not get extended vacation trips…This year was no different. Sometimes, that can make or break a summer, especially for my globe-trotting husband. But we did visit a neighboring state where I got to engrave the J’adore l’Or fragrance for some of my friends at Dior.
That was a blast!
And it helps to put things in perspective to know that there is always a silver lining if you look around for it. 😌
Focus On Big Picture Creative Goals
Chances are, if you use a planner, these days, your to-do lists are longer than the day. If you also work full-time, there’s a good chance you won’t get to complete the list every day. But, focusing on and completing a goal or two a day can give you the confidence that eventually, you’ll knock it down to zero.
I think this works so well for creative goal-setting.
Focusing on big picture goals for your creativity helps prioritize the things that matter most to you. That way, a year from now, you can look back and still have made progress.
For the last couple months, I was able to take action on my big picture creative goals by prioritizing practice, pitching, my brand look, and my social media presence….
Got a little more comfortable with Spencerian script
Created opportunities for two new events with one new client and one returning
Designed a new brand deck (thanks to The Craft Academy)
Refreshed my instafeed so that is more reflective of the work I do now (courtesy of the nicest kick in the bottom from @maidenseptember).
Sweet!
In the coming months, I’ll likely have to prioritize one aspect over others as we approach the first day of school. And there may be times when I will only be able to focus on one goal at a time this year. But, that’s okay too.
Meh. The plans we make for our mental health…they are so necessary.
Make them!
