9 Strategies to Help Prevent Burnout (for the D.I.Y. Rock Star)

This blog post is a great accompaniment to Gab & Jam

(video: http://bit.ly/Ep168noburnoutvidand podcast: http://bit.ly/Ep168noburnoutpod )

How to Prevent Burn Out (from Doing All the Things)

(for the D.I.Y. Rock Star)

We get it; you’re a D.I.Y. Rock Star, which means that it’s your ONLY option to CONSTANTLY be doing things. In fact, your entire empire DEPENDS on that hustle! Right?

Don’t get me wrong; I LOVE the feeling of having quite a lot going on—like juggling the blog, the podcast, the YouTube channel, the songwriting, managing the Facebook groups, updating social media, and making time for spontaneous creativity and travel—but every now and again, even I get overwhelmed. We’re sure you do too. That’s what this post is about. We want you to stay busy and productive…... WITHOUT losing your shit.

Gab & Jam Episode 112

“You should QUIT the music business!”

(video: http://bit.ly/Ep112quitvid and

podcast: http://bit.ly/Ep112quitpod )

Let us say, up front, that this post is inspired by Creative Juice, Episode 169, https://www.stitcher.com/show/203630/episode/82432499 , so some of what I am sharing here is us wholeheartedly agreeing with them. —On this particular episode, one of the hosts, Corrin Campbell, is juggling quite a few creative empire activities, including an upcoming European tour, a crowd-funding campaign, as well as writing and recording a new album; all while juggling a full-time job. When I heard this, my ears perked up. So, similar to us, she’s legitimately allowed to feel overwhelmed sometimes. What she was saying is similar to what we would say, which is that it doesn’t serve your mission to let yourself get—or stay—overwhelmed. That’s why we took some of what they suggested to heart on the podcast, but are sharing those tactics that work for us as well.

9 Strategies to Help Prevent Burnout

(for the D.I.Y. Rock Star):

1. Automate as much as possible:

The first thing that both the podcast and us at D.I.Y. Rock Star H.Q. suggest is having systems and habits for the things that are super important. This helps activities continue to get done—like in our case, we have the songwriting clip each week (that we share on all our social media) and our once monthly newsletter. By knowing that these activities happen at the same time each week (in the song clip case)--or each month (for our newsletter)—helps assure that these things get done (even when the rest of our world is sometimes falling apart! 😳). That’s why we recommend having some type of similar system, so that your scheduling reminds you that you selected and/or blocked out this time to accomplish something really important to you.

Gab & Jam Ep 165 How to stop an upgrade from being a downgrade? (video: https://bit.ly/Ep165upgradevid and podcast: http://bit.ly/Ep165upgradepod )

2. Deep and regular planning helps keep first things first (so if it’s important, it doesn’t get lost)

We KNOW that this seems counter-intuitive; to STOP what you’re about to work on to plan???? But check this out: I did NOT do that regularly enough throughout the month of March, so things that did not get done did not get put on the next week’s agenda, so ended up lost in the sauce….🙄DON’T BE US! When I realized the error of my ways, I made sure to STOP each week and allow AT LEAST a half an hour to look over our BIG goals (more about why refreshing your vision board is important: https://bit.ly/Ep154refreshvisionvid ), look over what is ALREADY on the calendar, and then look back at what SHOULD have happened the week/month before BEFORE adding in new agenda items that may have popped up since the last time you sat to plan. I swear that this method saves you heartache and headache from all the shit that falls in the cracks, when you don’t stop, drop, and plan. (What kind of planner do we use and why? https://bit.ly/whyplumplanblog ). In the long run, it will SAVE you time, so it’s REALLY worth doing.

Gab & Jam Ep158 Empower yourself in 2021 (for D.I.Y. Rock Star)!

(video: http://bit.ly/Ep158empower2021vid and

podcast: http://bit.ly/Ep158empower2021pod )

3. Major in efficiency (aka “working smart and not hard”)

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, “efficiency” is my new love language! 💗(https://bit.ly/april2021diyrockstar ) Do you want to know why? Because when I multi-task, it gives me a chance to get a whole bunch of work done, but in half—or less than half—of the time. Who WOULDN’T like that?! —In fact, people ask us ALL the time how is it that we get SOOOOO much done. And now you know what my answer is….. Yes; multi-tasking! So, I am CONSTANTLY on the lookout for ways to do more of it. That said, whenever you can, you should multitask. Here is an example of one of “famous” hacks. Our monthly newsletter serves multiple functions; it is a blog post, a “what have you done for me lately” archive, and a nurturing email that we send out to our growing community. As you can see, it serves AT LEAST 3 things at one time, which makes it time well-spent each month (EVEN when I am stressed for time). I suggest that you find some things within your life, business, or craft that you do double—or triple—duty.

Gab & jam Ep 117 “Haters are Your Elevators: Negative Comments are Your Proof”

(video: https://bit.ly/Ep117hatersvid and podcast: https://bit.ly/Ep117haterspod )

4. Decide what is going to be tabled until another time

It took us a while to learn this, but there are different seasons for different things. It’s not that you don’t plan to do ALL THE THINGS, but it’s just that you can’t do them ALL all the time. It is thinking that you’re ALWAYS going to try to do EVERYTHING at once that leads to more burnout and overwhelm than you want. So, when I said that we are on over 35 social media platforms and have over 27k followers, it has taken us years to build those profiles—a few at a time—to get them to where they are now. And even before that, I ONLY focused on building the websites, because I could not handle anything beyond that at the time. And, we WILL write our book, but not right now. —You see what I’m saying? We choose our goals for now from the BIG goals, but we can only work on one or two things at a time. We do this, so that we DON’T get so overwhelmed that, if an opportunity to do something additional comes along, we want to be able to have enough flexibility to take it on. However, the ONLY way to do that is to simply pare down what is happening at one time. (Goals: Less is More: https://bit.ly/Ep150goalslessvid )

10 Reasons NOT to Have Only One Social Media Profile (for the D.I.Y. Rock Star) http://bit.ly/Ep141moresocmedblog

5. Figure out the “Power Pill” Goal 💊

Here’s another important way to avoid burnout. Decide which ONE thing will make you feel like the queen of the world if you get it done. —I am NOT talking about the biggest goal or the most expensive goal, but rather the one that you are in the mood to take on (see tip 8) AND that will make a B I G impact in what you’re doing. Block out time to do that. Doing that is going to make you feel like a million bucks and, surprisingly, will make you more likely to want to go and work on other things that are still languishing. I swear that this is one of those secret weapon moves that I do in order to re-ignite my motivation. If you haven’t tried it, you’re missing out…..

6. Figure out where to ask for help

This is one of the Creative Juice suggestions. Their point is that if we’re being COMPLETELY honest, being a D.I.Y. Rock Star does NOT mean doing literally EVERYTHING yourself—are you going to cut each vinyl record in your living room? 😳—so figuring out where a good place is to call in someone else to help on an impactful project might help you get it done, which, as you might suspect, helps build your momentum to do more. They even went as far as to talk about hiring a virtual assistant to do things that will free you up to create more or to earn more. To be honest, that is an option that I MIGHT consider, since we have some data entry (for all our podcast episodes) that REALLY needs to be done, but I just haven’t slowed down enough AND don’t really care for the monotony of doing it. Hiring a virtual assistant JUST to do this task would allow me to check it off MY list and would enhance our website with a full library of topics and links to ALL our podcast episodes. So, just like you, I pulled out my phone and started taking notes on things that I thought we might try to prevent the overwhelm that invariably comes with being on this very unique journey.

7. Start somewhere

The next step seems really rudimentary, but sometimes we all need reminding. Decide on the ONE thing to start on that is related to your empire-building. Just ONE thing. Similar to the advice from tip 5, you can not dig out of the overwhelm, if you don’t JUST BEGIN. It can be as simple as doing just ONE thing that entire week. But do SOMETHING versus nothing and you will begin to feel so much better about your life choices, I promise you. Just remember that one is better than none. That will help you “fix your life up,” as Prince once said. Even if it’s a small goal, it will put you on the right path to get your mental health back together, so that you can move on to do more.

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8. Leave room for spontaneity

We don’t know about you, but we have learned to follow our gut and do some things on a whim. In fact, it gives us great joy, literally, to go chasing butterflies sometimes. 🦋 We like to leave room to add in those activities that we didn’t know existed, but once we find out about them, go check them out. Right then and there. 💥 (We DEFINITELY did that during our 2019 trip to South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. We found out about a few band showcases that we hadn’t planned for, but that seemed like they would enrich our experience, so we changed our plans on a dime to go see them. (SXSW Vlog Video Playlist: http://bit.ly/sxsw2019playlist ) This is just one example, but you get the idea. By taking in these inspiring experiences, it helps us NOT feel burned out, but enlivened instead. Even more so, these creative detours allow us to remember WHY we love creating; it helps us refresh that emotion of discovery. When our schedule is jam-packed, it is hard to stop and “smell the roses,” so to speak, and that’s when we tend to get burned out. We want that allowance of the random spark for you too, fellow D.I.Y. Rock Star!

SXSW Vlog Video Playlist: http://bit.ly/sxsw2019playlist

9. Leave room for shifting energy

Here is our final suggestion for how to avoid burnt out and overwhelmed. Being artistic, you should consider what your energy is saying to you. Or how do you WANT to spend your time in THIS moment. Are you feeling like creating graphics? Writing lyrics? Recording vocals? Planning? Pay attention to where your energy is guiding you and walk in that direction. There is a greater chance that you will actually get something done, so this is actually a shortcut.

Goals-Oriented Video Playlist (for the D.I.Y. Rock Star): https://bit.ly/goalsplaylistvid

Gab & Jam Ep 139 3 Unusual Ways to Make Your Art More Attractive

(video: https://bit.ly/Ep139sellartvid and podcast: https://bit.ly/Ep139sellartpod )

Honey Music Video Trailer http://bit.ly/honeytrailervid

Finally...

So, yes, we are all about the hustle around here when it comes to building your D.I.Y. Rock Star creative empire. But we’re still human, which means that there are times when it can all seem too much. That’s what we’re hoping these 9 Strategies to Help Prevent Burnout (for the D.I.Y. Rock Star) will help you alleviate. Most of these are the methods that work for us, but some of them, we found out “in the streets”--from the Creative Juice podcast (Episode 169 https://www.stitcher.com/show/203630/episode/82432499 ).