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Last weekend, I experienced burnout, to the point where I felt I couldn’t write anymore.
I had hit a wall. For the past month I had been writing 3 paid articles a week.
In the beginning, I thought I could handle it, but by the end of last week, I had reached a breaking point.
I had a sibling visiting from out of town that I wanted to spend more time with, but couldn’t because I only had so much time during the week to write and edit and research the articles.
It wasn’t so much the 1000+ word length of the articles; that was the easy part. What was difficult was scouring external links from a database that may not have had relevant material, or sourcing images of a very particular size and ratio.
What would take me an hour to write could easily take 3-4 hours with all the additional non-editing work. Multiply that by 3 for the number of articles I was writing weekly, and that meant little time for anything else other than work, sleep, and churning out content.
If I didn’t spend ample time working on an article throughout the week, I wound up cramming all the work into the Saturday, which is what I did the day my brother was in town.
I woke up at 7 am to write. Even after spending the whole day writing, I still wasn’t close to being done and had to finish the last article a few hours after the deadline passed.
It was then that I realized that something had to give. I was stressed; I wasn’t happy with my schedule and dissatisfied with the output I produced because I had such limited time to finesse it to my liking.
More importantly: all my free time spent writing for a website took away from things I actually wanted to do: spend time with my siblings, watch the new Jumanji movie with my fiance’s daughter, write for myself.
Physically, I was alright, but mentally, I realized that keeping up this pace was not healthy.
I reached out to my editor and told her I couldn’t write for her anymore. Instantly, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. That’s when I knew: it was time I took care of myself.
January 29th is Bell’s Let’s Talk Day. Normally I let this day pass me by, but today I wanted to take the opportunity to speak to the importance of mental health and taking time out for self-care, even when writing.
Writing is often seen as an indulgent practice; a pastime people engage in to flex their creativity and do something for themselves. In many ways, that can be true; sometimes it’s beneficial to just write because it feels good, or it’s fun, or it’s even therapeutic (I’m looking at you, fanfiction writers).
But as writers, sometimes we have to be mindful that we’re not writing for the wrong reasons.
Make Sure You Are Writing for the Right Reasons
I took the 3-a-week writing gig because I wanted to make money from my skills. I’ve accomplished that, and at first it felt good to have a monetary value placed upon my content. But after a while, I couldn’t reconcile the amount of money I was making with the sheer amount of time and energy it took to obtain said money.
If Writing for Money, Make Sure the ROI is Balanced
For instance: it wasn’t fun calculating how many articles or how many hours I would have to write to afford this thing or that service. It made my writing feel more like a commodity than something I was truly passionate about creating.
Check-in With Yourself Regularly and Re-adjust if Necessary
I originally intended to keep up this pace until I had written 50 articles (which would have taken me into May).
At the end of January, however, I did a check-in with myself to see how I was doing with the workload.
Not great, says I. Keep in mind I’m also working a full-time 9-5 job during the day, leaving me only a few hours in the day to devote to other activities.
And I want to go back to the gym! A week of trying to get into a more regular gym schedule made me realize that I simply couldn’t do both. There just wasn’t enough time in the day. And I certainly didn’t want to spend the rest of my Saturdays until May glued to my laptop for hours on end.
It was at that point I determined I needed to take a step back from writing to get more in tune with my physical self.
So here are the main takeaways from my harrowing experience with juggling paid writing work and a full-time job:
- Make Sure You Are Writing for the Right Reasons
- If Writing for Money, Make Sure the ROI is Balanced
- Check-in With Yourself Regularly and Re-adjust if Necessary
- It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask for Help
As an addendum: after speaking with my editor, she said I could pare down my output to a more manageable speed. I’ve decided to stay on as a writer, only now I could do it on my own terms.
It means less freelance money a month, but it also means more time for myself. And when it comes to mental health, if you don’t place a value on yourself or on your time, you can’t expect others to do it fairly for you.
What about you? Have you written to the point of exhaustion, or have taken on more than you can handle? If so, how did you cope? Would love to hear from you in the comments!
If you or someone you know is grappling with suicidal thoughts please contact the following resources:
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (U.S.) – 1-800-273-8255
Crisis Services Canada – 1-833-456-4566