Take a step back
Taking stock of life, situations and slowing down to look at things carefully from a different perspective is the perfect way to refresh our minds and “clear out our mental ram” so to speak (yes, I love computer analogies).
If you’re reading this, I’ll take a guess that you’re someone who already has goals and direction with life, and already are accomplishing great things. I highly doubt you’re someone who is wasting their life away in front of a TV screen.
But even when we’re experiencing great successes from our hard work, it is vital to analyze where we are spending our precious time and energy, and ensure it is supporting what we want to accomplish, as we’re only here for a finite amount of time (the most precious resource).
Hit ‘refresh’ on the web browser in your brain
The best way to accomplish this is by clearing out your mental ram. I have had similar conversations with several of my peers and fellow bloggers (including two who have 5K+ subscribers) about literally drowning in information.
Everyone who blogs will feel like this at one time or another. It’s natural, you end up consuming way more information than the average person each day. You also spend hours of your free time researching, writing, brainstorming and networking. Blogging is a serious mental workout. But as most people know, when you workout at the gym you need to give your body time off to recuperate and allow your muscles to rebuild stronger. The same applies here to your brain, and when you return, you will find your creativity recharged and your motivation soaring to new heights.
Analogous to my experiences with music production
Now, while there is chatter from a few bloggers about being burnt out, I personally don’t suffer from this yet. I simply have not been blogging as long as these guys. But, I have been writing music as long as most have been blogging, and it’s the same solution for both if you get burnt out. You need to spend time removed from your subject to assimilate what you have learned.
With music, I hit natural plateaus every so often where no matter how much I worked in studio on production, I just couldn’t make anything I liked more than what I’d already made. It felt like I was stagnating, and it was pretty frustrating — never a good feeling. When this happened I would take some time off and approached it with a fresh set of ears. With marketing, writing, or blogging, you’ll need to take some time off every so often and hit it again with a fresh set of eyes.
In the meantime, engage one of your other passions for a bit – you’d be surprised how much spending time with a forgotten creative outlet can recharge your energies for the others.
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5 comments so far
Great advice Adam. It’s something I know to do, but still often forget to step away from things for a time.
I have felt the blogging burnout here and there. Sometimes weeks go by and I can’t think of a single thing I want to say. I can usually fake my way through a few posts or call up ideas I’ve let sitting, but ultimately what works best is to step away from the blog for a week.
The first time I didn’t post when I felt I was supposed to was very hard. There’s a feeling that if you skip even a single post all your readers will abandon you. They won’t.
What I learned was after a few days or a week away from posting I came back renewed and often with better posts and more ideas.
Amazing what a little break can do.
August 1st, 2008Cool tune.
I try to clear my RAM as often as possible. Playing with the dogs, going to the gym, taking a power nap, getting together with friends … those can work. That’s just day to day though. Some of the bigger things take more effort. I try to do what you do in terms of drawing inspiration from sources other than the one required for the task at hand.
August 4th, 2008@Steven – yeah I know the feeling, but you’re right – your loyal readers will stick with you.
@Bill – glad ya like the tune. Seems like BlogRivet is going strong on new posts and interest, looks like you’re doing great.
August 9th, 2008Hi there, I just stumbled upon your blog and I couldn’t agree with you more when it comes to going “unplugged” periodically. I did so today for the first time in a long time and feel 100X better.
Love the article so much I linked it – hope you don’t mind.
Cheers!
March 12th, 2009@Broke Bettie – I don’t mind at all, glad you enjoyed this.
March 12th, 2009Add a comment