I’m here to tell you that there is such thing as blogger burnout! I have experienced it recently after my trip to Serbia, closely followed by Iceland. So what is blogger burnout? What can we do about it?
Why do Bloggers Burnout?
Indeed, being a travel blogger is an amazing profession – you get to see the world and document it. But, many people fail to realise that we are not going on a package holiday 5 times a year! When you go on a FAM trip, particularly a sponsored one, there is a lot of pressure to churn out content, and very little time to write it. Often this ends up stacking up for when you are back at your home or digital nomad city base. Or it just piles up while you are on the road…until you just go under!
There’s no-one telling you when to work – it’s not like you clock on and off as many people do in a regular job. And the thing about being a blogger is that you write when you are inspired. This could be at 7am on a balcony for breakfast. Or it could be at midnight after a long day of sightseeing.
The instantaneous nature of social media can also contribute to blogger burnout. With so much pressure on social media to show things in real time and document ‘the now’ as well as responding to all of the instant messages, you soon forget to make that all important ‘me time’. If your brain is constantly on the go, it never gets the break in needs to recharge. In short, it’s very easy to burnout as a blogger and we have to learn to manage that.
What is Blogger Burnout and what are the signs?
If you are almost on the verge of a panic attack if you haven’t got your laptop or mobile in your hand, this is certainly time to be concerned. It’s also important to plan time for your own personal interests. If you are not get time for anything else other than blogging, then this also becomes cause for concern.
For me, it started to develop into anxiety and severe stress. The feeling of panic would come with waves of palpitations – why hasn’t a blog gone out today? That person hasn’t been responded to on Instagram. There are emails from yesterday morning that haven’t been replied to. The words my husband spoke to me didn’t even register – I just looked blankly at my laptop and didn’t know what to do next. Yes – that feeling of having so much to do that you don’t know where to start.
And…STOP!
The thing was that I was creating my own stress unnecessarily, and simply hadn’t learnt how to manage that along with the workload.
Signs of Blogger Burnout
Here’s a summary of the main signs of blogger burnout…
- Panic attacks or waves of panic coming over you if you are not on your laptop.
- Anxiety over social media – feeling that you have to be on it 24/7.
- Not being able to write properly because your head is so ‘fuzzy’ that you don’t know what to do.
- Not being able to relax during time spent with friends or family – or even worse, not having time with friends or family at all.
- Palpitations when you look at your to do list!
- Feeling like there is nothing else in your life such as no time for hobbies or personal interests.
Is it Time for Cold Turkey?
It may well be just time to have a full week (or even longer!) going cold turkey on your blog or social media. This could help you to switch off and also should be long enough for you to realise that if you don’t answer that tweet or write that blog….nothing will happen! You can pre-schedule content if you are worried.
However, what I recommend more than getting to blogger burnout stage and going cold turkey is managing your workload and your blogging responsibilities well enough so that it doesn’t get to that point.
How to Manage your Workload and avoid Blogger Burnout
I now take regular time away from my blog and phone and computer. This has helped me to ground myself. I’m now more organised and methodical rather than engaging in the ‘just do everything approach!’. I also plan my workload carefully so that I spend time on things that will be most productive for my blog as a business (like actually writing my blog! ?) and hire an apprentice or VA when I need help if it’s at a time I can afford it. Here are my top tips on avoiding blogger burnout…
- It’s a good idea to have at least one day a week social media and blog free. Nothing is gonna happen if people have to wait 24 hours for a response – and it will do your sanity the world of good.
- Engage in a hobby that means you totally switch off from your phone and laptop.
- Set regular time throughout the week when you answer emails or social media messages. For example, I try to stick to answering emails in the morning at around 9am once a day from Monday to Friday. Knowing that I don’t have to answer emails on an evening or weekend really helps.
- Remember it’s ok to delete spammy emails without replying. Can’t be arsed to even look up my name? DELETE!
- Prioritise! It doesn’t really matter if you ease up on your social media schedule, but you always want to be working on your blog.
- Hire an apprentice to help you! I work with apprentices and delegate tasks such as designing pins for Pinterest and scheduling tweets.
- Have a regular blog schedule – Whether it’s once a week, twice a week or once a fortnight, find something that is manageable for you and stick to it.
- Don’t spread yourself too thinly. I recently merged the first blog I wrote (Globetrotter Guru) with Templeseeker. I started Templeseeker when I knew much more about blogging, but I didn’t want to have to maintain two or lose the traffic from the first blog. It may sound appealing running more than one blog, but it’s not necessarily the best thing to do, because you are diluting your workload and so it’s not guaranteed to earn you more.
- Write down your goals – you are much more likely to achieve them if they’re written down!
Are you burnt out? Comment on my blog and let me know you’re experience of blogger burnout – how did you overcome or manage it?
My Next Big Blogging Goal!
My next big goal is to reach 25,000 page views to be on Mediavine and I’d love to do that bythe New Year. If you want to help me to reach that, please share my blogs! I’m currently blogging 2 X long form content (1000-2000 words) a week – that means a juicy article for you published every Tuesday and Friday.
I’m currently being spurred along by my blogging buddy and travel friend Rachel from BlondWayfarer – a big shout out to you Rachel and thank you for all your support!