Let’s Talk: Being burnt out

Hello everyone!

After pondering on releasing a new series on the blog, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and do it! Introducing the “Let’s Talk” series where I talk about topics that I feel deserve some attention. It may not always be beauty related, sometimes it might just be about life…like today!

So what is being burnt out?

Help Guide describes it as “feeling empty and mentally exhausted, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring…burnout is a sense of being all dried up.”

Some signs of being burnt out include:

• feeling exhausted and unable to perform basic tasks
• losing motivation in many aspects of your life, including your work and friendships
• feeling unable to focus or concentrate on tasks
• feeling empty or lacking in emotion
• losing your passion and drive
• experiencing conflict in your relationships with co-workers, friends and family
• withdrawing emotionally from friends and family

It’s been a crazy year and I’m sure we’ve all felt burnt out in more ways than one. Firstly I’d like to talk about “Instagram burn out”. Not a real term…not to my knowledge anyways, but something that I feel is quite prevalent on Instagram. Being a content creator means a bunch of things:

• You need to stay relevant, on trend or up to date with the latest events in the social sphere
• You need to take time to create content, researching things, even purchasing props or cameras to ensure your content is only of high quality
• You need to spend time engaging with others on the platform, which means dedicating a good amount of time to being online and commenting/liking/saving other people’s posts
• Researching and analysing your own content and finding ways to improve it, increase your reach and engagement etc.

There are a lot of behind the scenes actions to create the “perfect photo”. Definitely not as easy as taking a product, snapping it and posting it – maybe back when Instagram was not as popular as it is now, remember those retro filters and people genuinely sharing random snapshots throughout their day? Good times.

In short, if you’re a content creator there’s a lot of stuff going on and “expected” of you. For some of us, it’s just a hobby, but we still pride ourselves on being present in the app and also engaging with others. For the rest, it’s a full time job, whether it’s freelancing for clients to produce high quality content, posting ads/sponsorships/collabs, the list goes on.

With all the app changes over the past…5-6 years, the app has definitely made it harder for content creators to stay motivated and produce their best work. With things like shadow banning, algorithm changes and home page changes, it’s quite difficult to keep up with it all sometimes. Not to mention hiding the likes – though I did quite like this change, because it made everyone less focused on the numbers, but we all saw a dramatic decrease in the amount of likes, compared to say 3 years ago.

Personally, I enjoy creating content it’s fun and being able to share it with likeminded people is also great. However, what makes me feel so burnt out is having to remain constant – it’s like a game. If you don’t put in the time and concentration to beat this level, you’ll never level up. That’s how I feel about engagement – some days I’m not very active because you know, life comes first. Then once I post, my engagement is just crap. Though as I get older, I find myself living my life more, rather than keeping up with my phone.

As a creator you also get into this rut, where you just have no motivation to keep going or keep up with the page. There’s a bit of pressure to keep up with the trends, always having to have the latest or newest products. I personally do not buy products I don’t need at the moment so I do sometimes fall into the rut of not having any “fresh” products to create content with – but that’s ok, I’d rather “shop” my products and use up whatever I’m using at the moment before I purchase something new.

To summarise Instagram burn out, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to creating content. If you don’t keep up, you tend to fall a little behind. However, sometimes you just have to prioritise your time and other things in your life and that’s ok.

Some of my tips to overcome Instagram burn out include:

• Taking time off Instagram to reorganise your thoughts, review your page to see where you’re headed/where you would like to be headed and giving dedication some time to figure things out in your personal life as well
• Don’t feel so pressured to have to keep up. I know it can be demotivating to see that your engagement is down, but just know you did your best to produce your content and think about everything as a learning experience. If that post didn’t perform well, maybe consider changing up your content, researching and trying new things
• Sometimes life comes first, and at the end of the day social media is social media. People will only show you what they want you to see, and you’ll never see the behind the scenes of their lives so don’t fret. Focus on yourself and your lane because no one can be you!

Now the second kind of burn out, life burn out. It could be because of your job, your family/friends, your romantic relationships, school, just everything happening at once. It’s been a tough year for everyone so it’s definitely understandable if you’re feeling burnt out.

Sometimes my job can burn me out, the hours, the people, the job itself…it all just gets too much. Sometimes I just want time to myself, to be in peace, to just breathe and simply..to just be.

I know we all have different reasons as to why we’re feeling burnt out and how to deal with being burn out. For me, I always just take a step back from life and sometimes even from technology.

To summarise, life can get overwhelming sometimes. So it’s important to take some time off to just be yourself, be in your own company and recharge mentally and physically.

Some ways that I overcome burn out is:

• Creating – whether it’s drawing or painting, I just put some music on and let my mind run free
• Writing/journaling – a great way to let off some steam, just write all your thoughts down, whatever is troubling you or whenever life is just too much and you need to reorganise your thoughts. Journaling is a really helpful tool, perhaps even keeping a physical diary if you’re able to, which lets you jot down your thoughts, keep track of your daily tasks and other things you might need
• Cooking – I love to cook, it’s what I always look forward to on my days off. I love trying new recipes that I’ve found or trialling my own recipes. Whatever you desire, you can do!
• Exercising – definitely takes the steam off sometimes, it’s also important to work on your physical health. Sometimes you just need to go on a run, it’s quite peaceful and you can let your mind roam free
• Resting/reading – Who doesn’t love a quick nap or having a good sleep? Also reading, although I’m not a huge reader, it’s still a good way to take your mind off things!

Thank you for tuning into the first blog post of the series, do you ever feel burnt out, whether it’s Instagram burn out or life burn out? Let me know how you overcame it, and let’s start a discussion!

With love,

*Please note I am not a licensed professional, this is based off personal opinion and experience. If you need help, please seek professional advice.