4 Hidden Causes of Blogger Burnout (and How to Avoid Them)
Like writing a novel or starting your own business, the idea of writing a successful blog sounds like a dream. And, as you’ll already know if you’re already seeing success in the blogging world, it can certainly feel like a dream a lot of the time.
However, content creators in general, and bloggers amongst them, are experiencing increasingly high levels of burnout as we struggle to switch off and care for ourselves in the ways that we should.
Despite that, many bloggers manage to maintain a healthy relationship with work that leaves them with plenty of time to recharge. The same goal is entirely within your reach, even if you’re feeling the brunt of blogger burnout right now. You simply need to consider the mistakes you’re making to leave you strung out to this extent, and potential solutions that could get your work/life balance back on an even keel.
Luckily, we’re going to consider the most common mistakes that might be relevant to your situation. So let’s get going!
What Causes Blogger Burnout
1. Not Having a Strict Schedule.
A lack of working structure is by far the most common mistake that bloggers make. It also tends to be the most fatal. After all, while you might have jumped at this chance to scrap your 9-5, an entirely haphazard approach to blogging work could see you either putting in an excessive amount of hours or doing too little and feeling like you’re constantly playing catch-up. Either of which can contribute to feelings of burnout.
So our first tip is to simply implement some kind of routine. By this, we don’t mean that you need to complete a 9-5, or even that you need to limit yourself to the same set of hours daily.
You do, however, need to implement a structure that works for you. For instance, you might find that you need to complete at least four hours of blogging work at some point throughout the day. Or, perhaps you realize that you work best in the mornings. You should always lean into these habits.
Not only will this more considered approach allow you to maximize your output, but it’ll also mean that you can carve out dedicated downtime, without the constant feeling that work is waiting for you.
2. Tying Your Hobbies Too Closely to Your Blog.
As bloggers, we tend to center our niche topics around the things that we enjoy the most.
For instance, if you’re a reader, you may start a blog containing book reviews. To a certain extent, this ability to do what we love is what makes blogging great. But, if you’re writing about reading, and then reading in your spare time, it can start to feel like you’re constantly working.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t blog about your hobbies, but simply that you should still ensure you have plenty of non-working outlets.
You might choose to read books solely for pleasure once you’ve clocked off, and read books for review in your working hours. Or, perhaps you want to mix things up with a secondary hobby, such as a word search that still allows you to have fun with words, but without constantly thinking about how it ties in with tomorrow’s content.
These efforts will ensure that you’re still doing things for yourself and are able to truly switch off when your schedule allows.
3. Letting Admin Pile Up.
As we’ve discussed previously, admin forms a large part of what bloggers do, and can include emails from sponsors, contributors, and other opportunities for monetization.
Unfortunately, you probably didn’t start doing this job to sit and reply to emails every single day. That’s why you might get into the bad habit of ignoring your inbox in place of creating new content or getting your blog to look its best. You may even assume that you can leave all of your admin for one set day a week and be done with it.
But that’s probably not a good idea. After all, a set day of admin a week is something you’re sure to dread if you don’t enjoy this job generally. Not to mention that, these days, taking a week to reply to most emails is a little too long.
As such, you may receive follow-ups in the interim that make it feel like there’s even more admin to address. And, before you know it, you could find yourself burnt out and questioning whether this really is the job for you.
A far better approach is to simply set aside an hour or so for admin daily. This should be ample time to address urgent requests and get a schedule in place for when you’ll reply to less urgent communications.
This could be how you wrap up each day, or how you warm up get started each morning. Either way, you’re less likely to feel that you spend your days ignoring an inbox that makes you feel exhausted each time you think of it.
4. Losing Sight of Your Goals.
When we start blogging, most of us have in mind the modest goal of being able to do this job full-time. Unfortunately, you’re only human, and it’s all too easy to lose sight of that goal as you set your sights on ever-loftier achievements.
To a certain extent, this level of ambition is the thing that will help your blog to grow, but it also runs a high risk of burnout, especially if you forget that you once simply wanted to spend your time blogging.
You might get caught up in major deals or acquisitions that increase your workload, for example, but stop you from actually writing the content that you started this job to enjoy.
To avoid this, always revisit your goals and initial intentions whenever you start to feel overwhelmed by your blog trajectory. Recalibrating with these in mind can stop you from drowning in unnecessary workloads or preoccupations along the way. And, that’s sure to keep dreaded burnout at bay!
