Attempting to Avoid Hobby Burnout

Attempting to Avoid Hobby Burnout

 

My Hobby Background 

Part of the reason I have come to love this blog is that over the years, I have posted consistently and inconsistently, and I think there's something beautiful about that. For me, I began reviewing books because I simply loved sharing the books that I enjoyed and sharing my opinions that maybe I didn't enjoy as much, but still had some level of appreciation for. I'm sure there's probably some reviews of mine out there, especially from when I was younger, where I was acting like some hotshot critic that I wasn't actually, but for the most part, I like just talking about what I love. And through reviewing, my joy of reading deepened because I began to pay closer attention to the details on construction of a novel or story, execution of character or plot development, and what the actual process of writing a story looked like. In every sense, it was a hobby.

 

Where the appreciation for posting versus not posting comes in is that blogging has, through the sheer nature of life's pacing and prioritizes, remained a hobby because of that inconsistency. Is it a good business model? No. Is is a good marketing strategy? No. Constant content and engagement? Literally no. But, psst -- it's not supposed to be. Blogging has always been here for me when I have the itch to write and express my thoughts on literature and pop culture (let's be real... it's mostly books and only a little pop culture), and fortunately it is flexible as hell so that I can come and go as I please with it without the worry of loosing it entirely. 

 

That being said, it seems to me that any form of media creation somehow automatically gets sucked into a vortex of consumption and a pressure, spoken or unspoken, to keep up and keep producing, even if you are not able to or would rather not. And I imagine this problem could broaden out and apply to any hobby as well, not just those that are creative in nature. Athletics, culinary, social, whatever your hobby of choice is, the plain enjoyment of it can quickly get diminished in value in how society speaks about the ways in which we spend our time. (This may be a very American problem, but I wouldn't be surprised if many countries suffer from a lack of cultural value in the plain enjoyment of life.)

 

Burnout Avoidance Plan 

Advance Planning 

My attempt for at least the rest of April, and maybe into future months as well, is to spend a day to really plan out and draft as much as possible my posts for the month, without pressure of hitting a certain number. It will hypothetically be a LOT of writing for one singular day, but part of what would trip me up in the past in the churning out of blog posts was the amount of time it would take to sit and write out a review or fun creative post. I think if I can consolidate my time and make it more efficient, I will be able to spend more time just enjoying the process of it all and not be overwhelmed by the daily occupation of writing the blog posts. I am very blessed and have a life full of family, friends, community, and other hobbies as well. I don't want to get so wrapped up in any one thing that I let the others fall to the wayside or God forbid forget them entirely. 

 

Loose Schedule of Posts

I took a beat to write out an approximate posting schedule of reviews, nerdiness, and ponderings on what it means to be a reader these days and what is happening in the book world. And then I took that schedule and etched out what specific posts would fit on which days. Now... here's the thing... I'm going to remove the pressure from myself of having to fill out each of those posts and days. If I get to it, great, if not, oh well. Having a little bit of something is better than not having it at all. 

 

That's a larger life lesson I tend to really struggle with that I think other people do as well: just because something isn't as perfect or complete as you want or intended it to be doesn't mean you should stop entirely or completely give it up. A little bit is better than nothing at all. That's going to be my reminder as I build out and follow my loose scheduling of posts. 

 

Fun Engagement with the Online Book Community 

This one is honestly going to be the trickiest for me... engaging with the community without getting sucked into the competitive consumerism of it all. I just want to have fun, have some laughs, give and get good book recommendations, and on the whole, connect with people through books. That's the second best part of reading to me (after the enjoyment of the story) -- connecting to others through what we have both or all experienced while reading a particular story. I have steered away from it slightly the last handful of years out of a mix of FOMO (fear of missing out) and jealousy that those people, by at least my perception of it, were still able to create content without the anxiety of it. I want to get back into just doing this for funnnnnnn.... random comments, supporting other reviewers, watching more BookTube videos again (I'm not on TikTok and probably won't ever be), all of those fun light moments. 

 

Broader Conclusions

 

On the whole, I think my burnout avoidance plan can be boiled down to five things, and these can apply to any hobby, not just blogging: 

1. Remember why I love my hobby 
2. Identify the parts that make my anxious
3. Remove the parts that make me anxious 
4. Let go of expectations, both from myself and others
5. Have fun and be childlike with it again! 

I'd love any other tips or tricks as well that other people have found over the years, so please feel free to comment with any you've got! 

 

Thanks for reading!

Xo