Like many households, December for our family is frantic, and burning the candle at both ends leaves us exhausted. The kids have one Christmas event after the other, and work is a flurry of end-of-year deadlines and reviews. To boot, I’ve just returned from a business trip to the US with some kind of respiratory illness (no, not that one; or that one; yeah, maybe that one), which certainly hasn’t helped with energy levels.
On the writing front, I’m in the final stages of editing the current draft of my second novel before it goes to beta readers. Having learned nothing from last Christmas, I decided to complete my updates over the festive season once again. Editing is a very different process from writing. It requires less creativity and as such – for me at least – it’s less enjoyable a process as well. Without much consideration, during this editing phase, I’ve found myself planning book #3, writing notes on my phone, and brainstorming ideas at each possible opportunity. It’s like my brain telling me it needs its moment of escapism to run free.
That was the case, at least until this last week, when I officially hit a brick wall. Creativity ground to a halt and I found myself struggling to write a Tweet – let alone map out a third novel.
Having a good sense of my inner workings, I know this usually points to some low-level burnout, which I’ve blogged about before. The general symptoms of burnout can be extensive and varied (this page provides a useful guide) but my own telltale sign is when productivity and creativity fail, and they usually drop like a mobile phone signal when burnout comes a-calling. Ramping things up on various fronts at a busy time of year usually leads to this.
I say low level as I can usually take action before symptoms progress and take a greater toll. The key approach to management is always to take the foot off the accelerator and do something different for a while – usually involving lots of physical activity and time outdoors. Playing the guitar and listening to music helps. As does cooking with a beer in hand, playing with the kids, or practising the art of lumberjackery (is that a word?). The key is to recognize the symptoms in oneself before things get too bad. In my experience, mild burnout doesn’t take too long to recover from, so long as timely action is taken. Avoiding progression is critical, as the impact of severe burnout can potentially take years of recovery.
After a lifetime of listening, I feel quite attuned to my own mental health. I’ve had to work on identifying what makes things worse and what makes things better. Picking up on the signals when things are not going so well is critical to keeping on track. Modern life is full of pitfalls and traps that can impact our well-being. My advice – keep tracking the machinery. When there’s drop in service, it usually means something isn’t functioning as it should, and it might mean you’re in a bad area and need to move on to a place where the signal is better. Yes, I took the mobile phone signal analogy full-circle and returned to it at the end. I think it works, but perhaps it’s my tired brain.
