Burnout can hit the most motivated writers and Type A high-achievers
by Ruth Harris
We’re writers and we don’t need no lousy bosses to crack the whip. We can do it to ourselves–create the frazzle, the frustration, the deadlines, the endless to-do lists, negative feedback, and the conviction that we’re not doing enough fast enough.
We feel like hamsters spinning an infinite wheel, and the more successful we get, the tougher the challenges become. No wonder we’re prime targets of stress and its evil relative, burnout.
Stress and Burnout are Different.
As I said in Part I of this piece, stress is a condition of too much and is characterized by over engagement. Too many demands, too much pressure. Your emotions are overactive and hyped up. You face too many demands on your time and energy, and feel barraged and overwhelmed by unrelenting pressure.
The consequences of stress are primarily physical: your pulse rate quickens, your heart pounds, but you still feel a glimmer of hope.
You think that if you can just get everything under control, you’ll be OK again.
Burnout, a result of chronic stress, is a condition of too little and is characterized by disengagement. You feel empty, emotionally drained, and devoid of energy.
Burnout reduces productivity and leaves you feeling helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Your motivation is gone, your creativity, kaput. You feel detached and depressed, and as if you have nothing more to give.
Keeping in mind that stress and burnout are different, the approaches to dealing with them are also different.
Coping with Stress
The symptoms of stress are primarily physical.
The American Psychological Association points out that an extreme amount of stress can affect the immune, cardiovascular and neuroendocrine and central nervous systems, and can take severe physical and emotional tolls. The APA lists five healthy techniques that psychological research has shown to help reduce stress in both the short- and long-term.
Right-size your to-do list. Embrace the zoom out.
Henrik Edberg, an author who writes about simplifying life and becoming happier, offers 33 practical tips about how to reduce stress. They range from right-sizing your to-do list (simple but brilliant!) to the benefits of zooming out in order to gain healthy perspective.
Create a coping plan and learn to “just say no.”
Lynn Ponton, MD at the Psych Central site, lists 20 ways to soothe the stress monster including detailed how-to’s of progressive muscle relaxation and the function of a “hassle” list that will help you distinguish between minor and major hassles.
Keep a stress diary.
From difficult people to poor time management skills, sources of stress are all around us. A stress diary will help you identify and manage your stress points so you will feel less frazzled and more in control. Here’s a template for a stress diary to get you started.
Organize the chaos.
Being better organized will help you feel less stressed and more in control. On her blog, Elizabeth S. Craig explains how staying organized gives her more time to write and offers tips on the tools she relies on.
Distraction and interruption.
Whether it’s the phone, IMs, emails, texts, a friend, a spouse, a neighbor, those interruptions add up to increased stress—and it’s not just stress. According to a New York Times article, distraction actually makes you dumber.
Unplug the router, or put your computer into Do Not Disturb mode to fend off distractions and let you focus on your task. Dump the multitasking and ban the interruptions and you will find your stress level plummet.
Coping with Burnout
Be alert to the signs of burnout.
Burnout is a sneaky thief of energy and pleasure. Burnout, a consequence of almost constant stress, doesn’t happen overnight and you won’t be able to rebound overnight. Be on the lookout for burnout if your joie de vivre is MIA, or if you:
- Feel every day is a bad day.
- Can’t drag yourself out of bed in the morning.
- Have the blahs and are exhausted.
- Take no joy or interest in your work, or feel depressed by it.
- Feel overwhelmed or paralyzed by your responsibilities.
- Turn to escapist behaviors, such as drugs and/or excess drinking.
- Are more irritable and short tempered than usual.
- Feel hopeless about your life or work.
- Experience what Ernest Hemingway called the “black dog.”
From snark to insomnia, the subtle symptoms of burnout.
Alan Henry at Lifehacker points out that the best way to beat burnout is to start fighting back before you hit rock bottom and can barely get out of bed in the morning.
Luckily, the signs are usually right in front of us—it is up to us to take care of ourselves, pay attention, and take the appropriate steps.
For burnout, take a go-slow approach.
Sherrie Bourg Carter Psy.D. points out that “Burnout doesn’t happen overnight, so it’s unrealistic to expect it to go away overnight.” She advises a go-slow approach to recovering from burnout. “Consistent implementation of positive changes into your routine is the best way to see improvement.”
The four stages of burnout.
Psychotherapist, Mark Gorkin, LICSW, “The Stress Doc,” suffered severe burnout himself and used his own experience to become an expert on stress and burnout, how to avoid them and how to recover. On his website, he describes the four stages of burnout:
- Exhaustion
- Shame
- Cynicism
- Crisis
He suggests proven strategies for rehabilitation and rejuvenation.
Recovering from burnout isn’t quick or comfortable.
In a personal essay, CEO Carrie Severson reveals that recovering from burnout is actually as uncomfortable as what causes burnout. Hardworking entrepreneur, she was broke—financially, emotionally and mentally—and describes the steps she took to rescue herself and balance work with personal time.
The 4 risk factors for burnout.
Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D., a Silicon Valley consultant, goes into detail about the consequences of poor work-life balance that result in burnout. She describes helpful techniques that you can use to rescue yourself from the destructive mindsets that lead to burnout.
The 3 types of burnout.
Scientists at the Association for Psychological Science have identified three types of burnout:
- overload
- boredom
- worn-out
The linked article, somewhat technical in places, delves into the significance of ineffective coping strategies that fail to protect from work-related stress. It also suggests that cognitive and behavioral therapies, such as ACT, may be useful for all burnout types.
Serious risks of burnout.
Belle B. Cooper, an iOS developer and writer, observes that burnout can impair personal and social functioning as well as overwhelming cognitive skills and neuroendocrine systems. She says that over time the effects of burnout can lead to memory, attention, and emotional problems.
She suggests ways to overcome burnout, some of which may seem counter-intuitive, like adding more activities to your day. If they are activities you actually enjoy, they can help us fight the resentment that leads to burnout.
Even though it doesn’t always feel that way, you have choices. Use them.
Stress feels awful. Burnout will stop you in your tracks.
Reframe the way you look at work and set boundaries, use organizational tools to quell the chaos and productivity apps to manage priorities, grab time for yourself, your friends and family, recognize the value of “goofing off” and “down time.”
The life you save will be your own!
by Ruth Harris (@RuthHarrisBooks) March 26, 2017
What about you, scriveners? Do you suffer from stress? Burnout? What methods have you used to cope with these problems? Have you tried a recommended technique that didn’t work?
BOOK OF THE WEEK
“Harris skillfully weaves fact with fiction in the creation of this tale of love, loss, success, failure, war and peace. If you’re looking to bury yourself in a big historical novel full of larger-than-life characters, this is the one.”
Available from AmazonUS AmazonUK Nook GooglePlay
OPPORTUNITY ALERTS
EMERALD THEATRE 10-MINUTE PLAY CONTEST $10 ENTRY FEE. Theme: “That’s so gay.” A character must say the words, “That’s so gay.” Two to four characters. No children’s shows or musicals. Ten pages (10 minutes) max. Will be staged in strict “black box” style. $300 prize Deadline June 30, 2017.
Creative Nonfiction magazine seeks TRUE personal stories or profiles about people starting over after a failure or setback. Up to 4000 words. Paying market. $3 submission fee. Deadline June 19, 2017
KINDLE STORYTELLER PRIZE £20,000 prize. (Yes, you read that right.) Open to any author who publishes a book through KDP between February 20 and May 19 2017. Any genre, including fiction, nonfiction and collections of short stories – so long as they are more than 5,000 words and previously unpublished. Deadline May 19, 2017.
Haven Writers’ Retreat. “Come find your voice in the woods of Montana with New York Times best-selling author, Laura Munson, and find out why over 400 people say that Haven Writing Retreats changed their lives. Offering special discounts for readers of this blog for both June retreats. June 7-11, and June 21-25
Boyds Mill Press accepts unagented submissions of children’s book manuscripts. It’s owned by Highlights for Children.
Ink and Insights offers the chance to have four sets of eyes read, grade, and critique the first 10K of your manuscript. It is a contest, but the main focus is giving feedback to indie and self-published writers. Early-Bird entry fee is $35, and this submission window closes the end of March. (A great deal for multiple critiques!)
Thanks, Ruth. This blog always presents interesting information. A stress diary? I never would have thought of that. To me, a journal or diary is another imposition on my already overtaxed schedule, but it’s worth a try.
Kathy—I feel you. To me, a stress diary would just be a quick, scribbled list. Would probably help put things in perspective. (at least a little.)
Brava! I’m particularly fond of “just say no,” which really helped me out in the last several years of my teaching career (an extra meeting? No. Board committee? No. Management Team? Department Chair? No & No. I also am a serious fan of “right-sizing your to-do list”. Thanks again.
CS—Also as in: No, I can’t drive you to the airport. No, I can’t babysit your kid while you go to the mall. No, I can’t wait for FedEx to deliver your package. Non-writers don’t think that writers actually work/have deadlines. I guess they never think about how books actually come into existence. Plus ditto on right-sizing the list. Makes a big difference to me. 3 items are do-able. 123 not so much.
OR
Non-writers think writers don’t do a thing at all. Their main concern is if you seem sober or not?
Well. I’m there. And now I know what on earth is going on. Thanks so much for all this help!
So basically, as a writer, I’m pretty dead. Filling the void with work I was told, and therefore I pretend to think, is essential (on facebook) and with yet another video tutor explaining marketing is probably another sign of avoiding the truth.
Once I wrote 500-page blog posts, trying to gain a following for a self-help book that was only half-written (although the outline is totally in place, the work has been taught to many happy audiences, and the written answers to the study guide could be a book, already…) heeding the mistaken advice of an author who presented as the only real authority on writing. Wrong advice, wrong input from other authors, can be a huge creator of hopelessly long and pointless to-do lists. So can angst from hope-giving, editors who later, with no explanation, drop a work.
The list is long. And it is real
I’m glad you mentioned boredom. I really just feel like mowing my yard and telling the needy world I had hoped to serve that they can just get well by going outdoors and mowing their yards, too. 😉
However, I will move forward. I will.
A black dog lying on your head.
Experienced both. Saw burnout coming last year which is why I’m focusing solely on the IWSG and not participating in the A to Z Challenge anymore. I can’t crash and burn completely – too many relying on me.
Alex—You are soooo smart to know when to pull back. Not everyone does. Good for you!
Fantastic post, and so timely for me, coming at the end of a book launch and blog tour. I make a point of doing two things to keep the blahs and burnout at bay: taking meaningful breaks (i.e., more than just a few minutes) and finding time for exercise.
It can be tough. Last night I went out and met up with a friend for three whole hours. Sure, it was Saturday night, but I could have been working, right? I knew I was facing some burnout signs when I realized I spent the first thirty minutes of our time together talking about – you guessed it – work. (Well, he did ask, but still…)
Exercise is a tougher nut to crack, especially once you’ve hit that magic number of 50, 60, or whatever it is for you. We writers spend SO much time sitting, and that is not a healthy way to live! For years, I made up for it with regular, hardcore cardio, but recently have struggled a bit… the result of sports injuries and auto accidents. I see the proof in that spare tire I’ve got now. But I’m working on it.
When I’m not doing well on the workout front, I try to just break out a 30-minute walk. That clears the cobwebs, and it’s decent exercise. When you look at trees for a while, and get more oxygen to your brain, the tasks ahead appear a lot more manageable when you get back to your desk.
Mike—What!!!! You left your desk FOR THREE HOURS?????? lol
But aside from that, good thinking. 🙂
I know, I am a slacker, Ruth. Ha!
Thanks, Ruth. Been there; Done that. Not fun. I appreciate your insights and strategies for avoidance and recovery.
Cat–thank *you.* Glad to hear you escaped. Stay safe!
I was headed toward burnout a year and a half ago, and caught myself just before falling. I still have trouble with balance, in that there are times when your best intentions are torpedoed (palliative father and autistic brother needing all I can give.)
This has been an excellent two posts, Ruth. People view authors as having all the time in the world. They forget that we may teach, have deadlines, and many personal appearances as part of the trade.
Melodie– burnout is insidious so glad you were able to catch yourself. So weird that people seem to think that writers don’t actually work. But we do, don’t we?
Ruth, there’s so much well-researched information here. Great strategies we can all use from time to time. And speaking of time, I can just imagine how much time you spent finding these great resources for us. Thank you for another helpful and wonderful post. Paul
Paul–thank you + smooches! 🙂
Back at you. 🙂
Hey, Ruth! Great post. You must be on the Universal Syncronisity wave. Or at least the same wave as me. I started writing full time in 1995. Took me until 2016-now to really fry myself. Now I’m on the burnout recovery trail. Nice to have a to-do list to help. I’m still writing, but just what I want. Thanks to you and your pard, Anne, for the inspiration and support. I’m going to share this.
Sandy—Happy to hear you’re on the recovery trail! Hope some of the ideas here help and thanks much for the share!
“Keep a stress diary.” I love this idea. I had to do this to understand my moods when I was younger. It’s too easy to feel and forget without realizing how you got there in the first place.
Libby—Excellent point! Having a point of reference as in a stress diary is a big help is figuring out what’s bugging you and how to relieve the points of tension. Your “mood diary” when you were young is brilliant. Wish I’d thought of it!
Wow! Thank you Ruth. There is so much valuable information here. I will be returning to check out many of your suggested links. I don’t know of a single person, writer or not, who couldn’t benefit from this information. Thank you!
Christine—Thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated! Hope you find info to help. 🙂
Another excellent post! Thank you – this is timely for me. I was SO proud of myself today for saying No to a request that was completely outside my job and would only wear me down. I’ll have to try it again 🙂
Demi—Yay! for you. Writers should never underestimate the power of a polite, but firm “no, I can’t.” Our work matters and so does our time in which to do it.
Ruth,
Terrific post on stress & burnout, which I accessed through a link on Anne R. Allen’s latest post. Really good links and references. It hit me in the gut because of my sour feelings this week. I had just “finished” a novel, i.e., told this to my critique groups. Then a writer friend offered a comment that he thought something was missing in the story, something central. Which, of course, I resisted at first, then had that feeling of having eaten some bad shellfish. So, I asked other writer friends if something was “off” in my story. The answers were generally, “Well, yeah.” And since then I’ve felt low, discouraged, overly tired, etc. At least after reading this post, I know it’s burnout and will be more able to deal with it. Although right now I don’t know how.
skfigler—Thanks for the kind words. We’ve all been through that awful feeling when the book we think is finished isn’t. We need time to recoup from the disappointment and go back in a calm way to find out what’s gone wrong—and what we need to do to fix the problem. Sad to say, comes with the job.