What's creative burnout?

We often think of burnout as overwork.

Working long hours.
Working 7 days a week.
Not getting enough rest/sleep.

And the antidote to burnout is removal from work. Rest. Do nothing. Passive.

That works for physical burnout. But there’s many types of burnout. Some might need you to do more stuff instead to recover.

“You often feel tired not because you’ve done too much, but because you’ve done too little of what sparks a light in you.” – Alexander den Heijer

That quote just about sums up what this other type of burnout is.

I call it creative burnout.

Not from working too long or too hard, but from not working on things that give you joy. Too little play, too much serious.

In such cases, sure I can benefit from the usual approach of walking away and taking some downtime. But the best way to recover from creative burnout is to do more.

Active rest, not passive rest.

The close parallel is when you’ve been working all day sitting down in front of a computer, and instead of resting by sitting on a couch watching Netflix, you go for a walk outdoors. Get some blood running. You feel more revitalized afterwards.

But huge caveat: Not do more of the previous work that is causing the creative burnout. Do less of that, yes. But do more play and fun. This isn’t some weird self-deception move to trick yourself to working more. Do stuff that makes you come alive. Stuff that you do even if no one is watching. Even if you don’t get impressions, likes, and retweets. Stuff for it’s own sake, just because.

So that’s what I’ll do.