Burned Out
I currently feel burned out. I feel little to no inspiration to do anything. My writing for niches went down from having a blog for bootcamp and a blog for my cats niche, to only the cats niche.
The cats niche in turn, went from writing 3 times a week to 2 times and afterwards it went down to 1 time a week. Two weeks ago I suddenly stopped writing alltogether.
Now even the cats niche website hasn't been published for in about 2 weeks time. I feel embarrassed but in the same time I am still not publishing anything. The same seems to happen to other platforms for me (I am on YouTube, Twitch, my WA websites, my other websites, Twitter, Facebook etc for different websites)
Its hard to admit, but I do too many projects. I also have a day job and I got plenty normal real life stuff to catch up on at home. The common feedback I get from others is:
Why don't you do just one thing? Why don't you keep your focus and concentration on one thing only?
The same I keep hearing from bosses at different jobs in the past. "As long as you keep your focus on the job, you are a great worker"
argh.. I am probably beating myself up about everything, but these type of things really hurt a person with little to no self-confidence a lot.
Why don't I just keep myself to one thing? I feel I simply can't. Or perhaps I could, but I feel I want to do everything. Doing only 1 thing is just plain boring for me. So boring that I will quit at some point sooner or later in the future.
Is that a diagnose? Does it have a name? Probably, but I am not going to find the answer to that. I rather find a way to deal with this somehow.
I can't say I am a person that sits down entirely either, for I do still do stuff, I still work and I still have a lot of other things at home going on. I also do find the people that I need for support, such as a co-active coach, other social workers for support and so on.
How I do these other tasks or this work line? Well simply because I feel I have to. It either brings in money or in case of IRL tasks they just need to be done anyhow. The sort off, you need food so you make food and eat it.
I actually started writing an article just yesterday and hope to finish it today so that I can publish it. That would be the first article after about 2-3 weeks time of silence on the cat blog.
Sigh. I am not proud of it. I am not happy with this at all, but it happened. I was and am still simply out of energy. When I get home from work I have a couple of hours to get stuff done. By the way, that means 90% other things than on the PC.
I usually also end up too late in bed, which means I sleep very little with an early up job or I get far too late at work (although I have flexitime, but it means that if you start late, you end late too).
I got myself some books and some other self-help through other channels, so I am probably on the right track slowly again, but feel terrible about the gap I created on my site. Let's not even speak about the bootcamp site I once started and then abandoned. I got some new ideas how to continue with that one, but the ideas haven't become words on paper yet.
The energy has to come back first, before I can really get stuff going (again).
Some things I will do now:
- Get mental help (coaching etc)
- Look into time-blocking and planning
- Get into nature for a walk
Considering that I don't post often on WA, I just realised that I am neither very good at asking for help in the right time. I do ask for help, but than the ship has usually already sailed. As in, the burnout already happened, I need to find a way to prevent it from happening or at least ask for help in due time so it doesn't escalate any further.
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Hi Steven, I can relate and sympathize with how you are feeling. Lately, I've found myself going in too many directions and still having to work my day job. For me, it has helped a bit to pull away from some of the things I love in order to regroup and once again find my focus.
I wish you all the best, Steven. I hope you find your focus once again too.
Sue
If we didn't exercise every day, we would go out of our minds. We do Yoga (or go to the gym or get in the water), which helps us enormously with focus. Doesn't need to be a long session. The breathing really helps us relax and feel more peaceful about working on our site. We only work on the one site.
Sounds like you need to let the guilt go, take some more time off, maybe take a little day trip with your significant other, get into nature, kick your shoes off, relax in some grass...whatever makes you feel good and realize all the great stuff you also have in your life.
You will re-energize if you just give yourself a change of view and a chance. Be kind to yourself, Steven.
Colette and Philip
... hey hi Steven! ... good to hear from you! ...
First of all, you recognized the signs of burn-out -- this is a vital step in getting back in shape -- burn out is serious -- do not underestimate or minimize its health effects ...
Secondly, you've blogged about it -- well done!
Thirdly, agree 100% -- you need a schedule overhaul -- it's obvious you've taken on too much ... lighten your load ...
Fourthly -- it's essential you take a conscious break / pause and get thoroughly rested ... decrease / remove any disturbing stimuli as much as possible ...
Finally, your health is paramount -- what would you be doing if you didn't have your good health? ...
... and also, call upon for support as needed ... plus, when was the last time you actually took a vacation? ...
Wish you all the best ... get well ... cheerio ... 😊
p.s. by the way, physios recommend getting up off the computer and desk every 10-15 minutes to move the body and get the circulation going for effective musculo-skeletal health ... simple stand tall stretches ... and fresh air walks in nature like you've said! ... :)
Entrepreneurship is a drainer sometimes. But something that most people do not plan for is an exit strategy.
You clearly have not created onE.
I understand your struggle. The one thing that saved me was working things out to make myself less and less necessary in my business.
The key to scaling your business, especially a blog, is to OUTSOURCE.
At this point I am sure you have gotten your site profitable, now time to invest a few hundred bucks a month into getting article writers (the people that write the articles) and content managers. (The people that post the articles)
I've done that and those few hundred bucks month buys me TONS OF TIME to work on what I want (which is nothing most of the time)
Entrepreneurship is not running yourself or your health or your family into the groud. That's called a job.
Entrepreneurship means working hard to build and empire, and make yourself less and less necessary to keep the business afloat.
So look into outsourcing your content creation.
Thats just confusing.Kyle emphasises us to write our own content. He says you dont need to be a writer.I think you do need to be a writer.
You do write as much content as you can. But when your site gets big enough or starts growing fast than you can handle it.
Enlisting help to scale your site is perfectly ok.
I'm afraid that I haven't made much money. One of the reasons for it is also that I had a huge dip in traffic since last Google update. It starts to get better again by now, but it has been a lot of time to figure out why it happened.
Although I understand you perfectly on that subject, I think I need to work a little longer and a little harder before I start outsourcing stuff. Just don't have the means for it yet.
I was going to suggest time blocking, but you have it right there. I know some people have a difficult time concentrating for long periods of time on just one project. So, you work for a smaller chunk of time on one thing then you move to the next thing for a chunk of time and so on.
Yes, you can become defeated and adapt that mentality but you can also recognize that about yourself and understand it better since you have that realization.
After you have already come to that understanding, then you are better equipped to work against it and become the success that we all know that you can be. Brainstorm before setting down to right and come up with some ideas of what to blog about and maybe even start the outline before sitting down to write.
Anyway, there are several things that you can do to circumvent this issue and still be successful.
Blessings ~ Frank & Tina (free4life)
This is probably going to sound like I am preaching at you, maybe I am a little bit, but I can relate to all of this, in some very personal ways.
First, stop beating up on yourself, it is the very worst thing we can do for our own personal health.
You are doing what you need to do, as you said in real life and what happens in the virtual world will happen in due time as well.
As for too many projects, I understand that, and you will be able to decide what is truly a priority, and what is not.
Write down the top 25 things you love in life and want to do, then forget the last 20. Advice from Warren Buffet, maybe you see the logic.
As for the rest, actually give yourself credit for what you have done in life, and how you keep moving forward.
Of course there is discipline involved and you will find your way, we all do as life goes on.
Lastly, I would suggest, counting your blessings and realizing all the good things you have happening in your life. When we are hard on ourselves we tend to forget to be grateful for the things we do have.
The opportunities we have before us in life. Every day is another chance to feel better and live life.
I hope this helps, makes you smile and things are moving along for you.
I think burnout is something we all go through, Steven. I've experienced it myself and it's hard to overcome it. I'm sure I don't have the answer in your case, but for me it helps to relax, and not fret or feel guilty about it. It's just something that happens.
I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to take a break from something for a while, especially if there is stress or burnout. Sometimes that break will help with a re-focus later on.
In my case, an involuntary break from WA because of travel and family visits turned into a voluntary slowdown in my work efforts, until they almost stopped. After about 2 months though I now feel recharged and have actually come up with a new idea for my posts that should keep me from running out of ideas for a while.
I wish you luck and hope you find your way. Don't stress about it, that only makes it harder to get back in the groove.
Grant
I find myself in the same boat at times....I haven't written a post in just over 2 weeks....I do have some started but lack the motivation to finish them. There's a lot of personal stuff going on in the background which doesn't help and it leaves me in a semi-depressed mood and thus not motivated to do anything.
I guess I'll just have to suck it up and get back on track.
Do what you need to in order to get back on track. If you feel focusing on one track is better then do that...don't feel bad that you let another go to the wayside...you can always get back to it later. I started with my one niche and have halfheartedly started my WA promotion site. It has one whole post on it thus far. I actually find myself writing comments on other's WA sites that are more detailed than my own on my site.
Rest assured you're not alone. If we stick together we can get to where we need to be.
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Hi Steven, I have personally just started time blocking and I'm finding it helpful. I set an outline of what specific goal I want to accomplish that day, week, month and year then I brainstorm different ideas on how I will accomplish that objective. I find somewhere quiet where I can focus and I work for 2 hours straight with no interruptions. Smaller time block may work for you. Try each tip that people recommend and find which one works best for you.
Wishing you all the best.