5 wellbeing tips for balancing the demands of content creation with healthy self-care
Content creation as a lifestyle and profession is certainly not without its benefits. But like any creative pursuit, it’s not without its downsides either. Maintaining a constant flow of high-quality content, and tending to the passionate community that comes alongside, is a lot to manage.
While ‘content creator fatigue’ was a brand new, headline-making term just a few years ago, nowadays it’s a well-known risk of the occupation, and something that the whole industry - the responsible parts, anyway - is very conscious of needing to help reduce. It’s not easy to maintain a healthy work-life balance when you love doing what you do, and certainly not when that thing you love doing can also be such a relentless pursuit. Working on the creative agency side of things, we can empathise with both the drive and the demands, so here are some topline tips for keeping wellbeing in check, as well as some avenues to explore when you don’t.
Recognise the difference between tiredness and burnout
I get it. It’s easy to not stop. When your job is also your hobby and also your lifestyle and also your creative passion, it’s much easier, in almost all situations, to just keep going. Because when something’s personally important and/or enjoyable, it’s not really a chore, right?
Yeah, and that’s the problem. Because while ‘Just keeping going’ is really easy to (momentarily) motivate when you’re doing something you love, motivation alone is not a solution to the age-old problem of the energy conservation. At some point you’re going to run out, however hyped you might be about a project. And when you do, you’ll need to be aware of exactly what kind of tired you’re feeling.
Simple ‘tiredness’ is just the usual, daily cycle of energy expenditure kicking in to signal the need for rest. Take a break. Eat something. Go to bed. Do all the usual things that people do when they get tired. That’ll sort it. Fatigue and burnout though, are very different things. They’re tricky swine, often able to disguise themselves as plain old tiredness at first, but in reality they take root as persistent, energy-sapping states. They both manifest from - and perpetuate - chronic, ongoing tiredness and stress, and reduce one’s ability to mentally and physically function to a happy and healthy degree.
Being tired for a few days in a row is one thing. But if a bit of downtime and sleep catch-up doesn’t help like it should, consider that you might need to take greater measures to decompress and regenerate.
Know when you’re at work and when you’re not
And while just not stopping can too often seem a great idea, it can also be really hard to even know if you have stopped. Because where are the lines, really? Does “work” end when you upload a video or finish a stream? Does checking the comments and dropping a few replies count as work? Are you working when you reply to a few e-mails? When you just casually browse your mail on the train? How about when you just mull over new video ideas, and maybe jot a few notes down over breakfast?
Yes. You are. You are working in all of the above situations. If in doubt, filter the activity at hand through the following question: “Would I be doing this thing, right now, if I wasn’t a content creator?” If the answer is “No”, then you’re working. And if you are, then the next matter you need to weigh up is whether you’re working within correct and healthy boundaries, or overdoing it out of hours when you should be decompressing.
Trust that taking a break does not mean quitting, or letting anyone down
The notion of taking a break can be daunting. After all, the algorithm is ever-hungry and demands feeding. And above all else, you probably just don’t want to let your community down. But do not worry. If you’ve hit the point where you need some extended downtime for the sake of your own physical and mental health, then taking that break can only be the best thing for everyone.
For your wellbeing the importance obvious. But at the same time, just as you don’t want to let your loyal viewers down, neither do they want you to get ill for the sake of an assumed obligation to them. No-one wants to watch their favourite content creator degenerate before their very eyes. And on the flipside of that, some rest and regeneration time for you can and will result in a whole new wave of inspiration and creativity, allowing you to better serve your audience with fresh new approaches to the content they love when you get back.
You matter to your audience juast as much as they matter to you. They’ll be glad of you looking after yourself, and they’ll be waiting - even more eagerly than before - when you get back.
mix things up and add some variety
It’s often said that a change is as good as a rest. That’s nonsense. When you’re worn out, only a rest is as good as a rest, and you need as much of it as you need. In situations of genuine burnout, a change is just a distraction that gives you fresher scenery to look at while you collapse.
That said, if a different kind of fatigue is plaguing you - ie. a general sense of malaise and rut-like routine about your day-to-day, rather than full-blown exhaustion - then mixing things up can be exactly what you need. And you shouldn’t feel guilty about feeling like that either.
Professional creatives are often perceived as having charmed, carefree lives of whimsy and leisure by those on the outside, but those of us who do this sort of thing for a living know that, as lucky as we are to have this gig, it’s still a job. You’re allowed to not always be thrilled with your day, and you’re allowed to want more excitement for yourself. Being truly inspired, after all, is how you channel your best energy and make your best content.
So consider other options. Maybe look at balancing your current VoD output with streaming, or vice versa. Maybe look at breaking up the weekly video production churn by trying out a new style of creation, address, and connection with something YouTube Shorts. Swing over to TikTok and get a bit more experimental. However you do it, shake up the idea of who you expect yourself to be, and find new ways to flex who you really are.
Your audience is here for you, not the details. As long as your content remains authentically you, they’ll love it. The main point is to inspire yourself so that you can keep on inspiring them, while staying happy, healthy, and energised while you do it.
Don’t stew on stress. Discuss it and dissolve it
A big secret of life that no-one tells you: That huge, thundering great monstrosity of a black cloud of stress that’s filling out the horizon of your mind with an impassable, pendulous wall of stress? It’ll fart away to nothing the instant you get it out of your head and say its name. The inside of the human skull has a strange, amplifying effect on worry, and makes them all appear 1547-times* bigger than they actually are when exposed to fresh air.
Stressed about being stressed and not sure how to proceed? Need a break, but don’t want to upset or lose your audience? Unsure about your current content direction, but not certain that the new ideas you have will work out? Say these things. Tell someone. Talk to someone. Air these matters openly and honestly, and you’ll find that what felt like a huge, impossible-to-navigate unknown turns suddenly very easy to handle once becomes a small, tangible, practically negotiable known.
Your audience isn’t just your audience. They’re your community. So they - among all the other dependable people in your life - can and will be able to help you negotiate any new path forward, whether long-term or simply an experiment. But the main point is to talk. A problem is only a problem while it’s imaginary. As soon as you start talking it about it, it’s a solution-in-progress.
*Approximate ratio.