Babs Album Cover: Heart Shaped Head Dent
Anotha one. This time, much more finished looking!
Creativity and creative drive are unpredictable even at the best of times. I don't know why I stayed up late rendering this one as much as I did, but my guess is that it had something to do with the complete lack of structure or expectations. Because everything else in my work right now have standards and deadlines, sandboxing a subject with no stakes allowed me to tap into more flow and artistic stamina. It's almost like reverse psychology, the "you can stop whenever you want" autonomy putting a little extra gas in the tank.
I dunno, what do you think? What's YOUR relationship with burnout in regards to your job and your hobbies/crafts? Does your behavior manifest in unexpected ways? What did it teach you about yourself?
Comments (13)
God, I want to use that name...
Being Asian and growing up in an Asian family, expectations are set a little too high for everyone. I had to struggle with undiagnosed AuHD for over a decade until I finally got diagnosed, yet with little effort on everyone else's part to adjust to said diagnosis. You try your damn best, yet there's always someone telling you that you "didn't try hard enough." Just because you have no trouble with Trig/Calc, doesn't mean I wouldn't. If it takes me five business hours to do College Algebra, it's going to take me five to ten business years to do Trig/Calc. I also had extended relatives on my maternal side who constantly contacted me for IT Help, and it was always the elder aunts/uncles who expected things to "just work" and expected me to be always available to guide them. At least the younger aunts/uncles have better logic. One of my mom's sister-in-laws would always ask me to help her with minor to moderate tech issues. The problem is that she's the "I want you to show me how to do this thing. I don't want you to teach me how to do it, I'm not here to learn" kind of person. Not to mention, at step 1.75, she'll likely give up and complain that it's too complex, saying, "Your uncle will learn it for me," and forward me to her husband. To which he gets caught off-guard every damn time. Not to mention that he now has late-onset Alzheimer's/Dementia, so her behavior isn't going to help out his stress situation. My mom has already lost one of her younger sisters to early-onset Alzheimer's/Dementia two years ago. What that entire family needs to learn from all of this is not to do/say anything stupid enough to warrant high stress and annoyance. There's going to be that aunt/uncle who's all like, "Pft, it's fine...", you ma'am/sir, are/were the Problem-Child.
TL;DR: Being constantly bombarded with IT HelpDesk calls from my maternal side growing up (specifically with a very particular auntie), basically put the nail in the coffin for me doing that same shit professionally.
Zum anbeisen gut
I was ready to quit a job once because of unreasonable demands and burnout. After ranting about it to my husband one night he calmly asked me ‘Did you ever actually use the word “no”?’ (I realized I hadn’t) It’s a very powerful word. It makes them appreciate the ‘yes’s a lot more if you toss in a few ‘no’s now & then.
My brother’s secret to time management: “Anything that is not worth doing, is not worth doing well….” Just refuse to do the BS work. (Or if that’s not possible, give it the least amount of lip service possible). At work, I try to stay clear on what my 3 top priorities are. Whenever my boss suddenly thinks of something new I could do, I say I’d be happy to do that, but which of the other 3 things should I cancel or delay to make time for his shiny new toy project? (The answer is always “none of the above, I just thought it was a cool idea”)
My burnout came in the form of a nervous breakdown.
When I hit burnout, I just want to hide. Best way for me to fight that is to get physically active and satisfy whatever is stifling my creativity - that something most often being whatever it is I am denying myself. Games, writing, drawing etc. Cleaning my workspace/ living space is also therapeutic. Organizing the chaos my office/ house has become helps organize the chaos in my head. Then seeing the clean space allows me to relax and spend time on a hobby without getting distracted by the "work" I see around me. All that aside, I love seeing these album covers.
Honestly I’m going through massive burnout right now, I have little to no time for my Hobbies and likes and I’m quite frustrated. I wish I had more outlets
When I start to burn out, I take it as a sign I'm not doing enough "self care" to recharge my creative batteries. It's a hard pill to swallow when you're awash in work, but if you don't take care of yourself, the work suffers, too.
Oof, yeah my creative drive is a fathomless mystery. Most dats I struggle to get out a few hundred words on my major wroting projects. But I once slammed out a thousand words exactly in under an hour because of an idea I'd had that morning.
when it comes to my two jobs they're definetly things i enjoy doing, of course work overloads happen and im usually able to manage, but things like too many projects or repeated fails or too many shifts close together leads to burnouts for me. all i need is a good sleep or just unwinding with video games!
The best way I deal with burnout is consuming creative works to find more inspiration. Or I play or read things that inspire me to keep creating. It’s such a difficult process and I applaud you for sticking with it all.