Reply To: How do you deal with burnout?
Forum Archive › How do you deal with burnout? › Reply To: How do you deal with burnout?
I think part of it may be what all are you doing in addition to Blender? (Or what aren’t you doing?) It’s not healthy to work all day, every day, even if half of your “work day” is your hobby. Especially if you have an office job and are doing another “sit down” job in Blender, and your entertainment is reading/watching T.V.
Do you have a full time job, school, kids, a house and chores, bills to pay, shopping to do, family or friends to spend time with, then, after all that, in whatever hours are left to you, you try to do Blender? I’m a single guy, and even without many of these commitments finding the time to do both work, and progress in Blender is difficult for me. I found it frustrating to do the creative things in “bursty” bouts of energy. I’d get good at something, then have to put it down. I’d lose so much in stretches of inactivity.
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I’m quitting the day job; not just because I want to pursue Blender, but because the people and environment at the job had changed, and not in a positive way. I’m taking that opportunity to focus on Blender, while at the same time trying to re-balance things. Since I won’t be working I’ll be doing more exercise, and trying to eat better. I’m middle aged, and find it challenging making friends in person, but that’s part of what I’ll be doing too. Since I won’t have my coworkers around me at the job, and my friends and family are all out of state, it’ll be important that I don’t become the basement dwelling neck beard I have tendencies towards. (I can be very lazy, and with the roommates I’ll be getting to help while I’m unemployed, I’ll literally be moving into the basement. I’ll need to make sure I don’t stay down there 24×7.)
Not everybody has the luxury of quitting or cutting back on their hours at work, or their other obligations outside of work. If you don’t, then maybe it’ best to find a healthy amount of time to spend with Blender. For myself I find I’m not productive unless I’m doing things for at least an hour. If you’re similar, maybe an hour a day, every day, is too much if you have all your normal tasks? What about an hour Tuesday and Wednesday, and a couple on a weekend day?
Or maybe you’r really good at texturing, but not modeling/sculpting. (Or vise versa.) What about working with somebody in the community to complement both of your strengths and/or the things in Blender you enjoy the most? (Making sure you’re not over committing to something. You need to find somebody who’s at a similar tempo as you if you’re going this route.)
Everybody’s circumstances are different. One can be trying to fit too many activities into a limited number of hours in the day. Ironically one can also find one’s self with too much time on one’s hand; something I’m going to have to be careful to watch out for. I’ll need to make sure I’m getting in exercise, socialization, a reasonable diet and sleep schedule. All the things that keep people healthy.
One of the things I know about the day job is, five days a week, I roll out of bed consistently at about the same time every day. I put on my clothes, and I go into the office. I’m going to have to watch out for the creeping cruds – where one sleeps in longer and longer and one’s sleep schedule gets sporadic. That way leads depression and maybe bigger diminishing returns than overworking one’s self. I’ll need to be sure that I get up, and probably out of the house, every single day.
That’s me, and the things I need to look out for. You’ll have to evaluate for yourself whether you’re just in a creative lull, or if you’re facing a larger systemic type of burn out. If it’s the latter, you’ll want to find a way that works for you to address it and alleviate the things that are causing the burn out. (I’ve been trying to find that balance for over 20 years, it’s not easy.)
Well, this turned into a rambling post. I could spend a fair bit of time editing it, but I think it hits all the pain points I’ve encountered not just with Blender, but with my creative hobbies in general. (I’ve tried my hand at novel writing and game programming, other sit down hobbies that take a large time commitment, and the frustration is similar with all of them.)