A Big Problem With Substack

Burnout!

I’ve been struggling with burn out.

I thought it was just about working long hours — getting up between 4 and 5 to do Substack, working hard to maintain weight loss, and working in a high energy day job.

I thought winding back would help and so I stopped posting on Substack for a few weeks. We’ve even had a couple of weekends away. All that has helped but coming back is a slow process.

I’ve battled feeling flat, tired, unmotivated, uninspired, and not really sure of the direction I want to take next year. I’ve wondered whether I’m going to have the energy to sustain this in the future.

So like usual, I’ve done a bit of research. I found Kati Morten on YouTube who gave me some new information that I didn’t know. According to her :

“burnout occurs when you aren’t getting sufficient reward or recognition over a period of time, for the work that you do.”

Now that’s a big danger for Substuck because unless you have an existing audience you do put in a lot of work for little return in the beginning. It’s a very slow burn.

It’s the same for writing. You put in a lot of work, but until your book is published and you’ve got an audience to read it, you won’t get much engagement.

I’ve been winding back but according to Morten that isn’t necessarily the best solution. Infact it can actually make things worse. She suggests doubling down on meeting basic needs like healthy food, exercise and human connection, scheduling breaks, generating kindness, find joy in the small things.

The poet David Whyte has saying —

“The cure for exhaustion isn’t necessarily rest, it’s wholeheartedness.”

I think he means that that burnout isn’t just about needing sleep but about finding a deeper connection with what really matters.

• Fully engaging with real life — something I’d kinda stopped doing.

• Finding alignment with core values, and giving sincere, focused energy to important commitments rather than being spread too thinly.

So that’s what I’ve been doing — wholeheartedly taking care of myself.

Part of that is figuring out next year to avoid this implosion during the last quarter. It’s much better to prevent burnout than to crawl out from underneath it. I have a lot more to say but I’d like this to be a discussion.

So how are you going?

What would you like to achieve next year?

How do you prevent burnout?

Best,

Deb 🥰