During wedding season life can get busy, and I hear a lot of photographers lamenting feeling overwhelmed, tired, counting the days until the holidays. Being overwhelmed at times is totally normal, but if you find yourself feeling this way in recurring cycles then you must keep on reading how to avoid photography burnout.
First and foremost, let’s recognize the symptoms of burnout. Fatigue, stress, a sense of uneasiness, difficult sleeping, craving time alone, laziness, feeling unaccomplished, wanting to give-up. If you count at least 3 of these in your current life then you are definitely in a bad place but here are the good news: you’re not alone, a lot of people experience these, and you can manage the situation and fix it, plus you can prevent to feel this way again.
What is the cause of burnout? Well, you’re a business owner, and you’re a creative entrepreneur who’s career is heavily imprinted in the efforts of the mind and a creative talent that must be nurtured. When the time to nurture the creative talent lacks, or when the brain is pushed to the limit, or when the brain is pulled in a lot of different directions all at once, then is natural that we reach a breaking point that we refer to as burnout. A part of the fault for this very common condition is attributable to the digital world we live into, as it has shaped us to believe that busy is good, being busy means being desired, wanted, it’s a sign of success. While moderately that is true, this stigma around being always busy has caused lots of people to throw themselves into work-work-work mode without leaving any time for reflection, making plans, or organizing thoughts.
So, there we go, shoot a wedding, shoot a session, editing, meetings, phone calls, social media, blogging, more photoshoots, and then of course there is your family, the kids, summer, friends, dinners, social gatherings, OMG!!!! I know you’re getting anxiety just reading this!
This anxiety is the last warning call your brain is sending to you. Your mind is really letting you know that needs you to take care of it, otherwise in order to protect itself, it will send you in burnout mode, that is sort of a timeout for disobedient children who didn’t listen to the first 5 reproaches.
So, how to avoid photography burnout? Here is a list of things you can do to prevent it and stay ahead of the curve, recognizing when you’re about to hit the mode and correct your trajectory preventively.
- Slow down. Tackle one item on your list at the time. I know you’re busy, you have 50 million things to do and nobody does them better than you. But you can’t force your brain to tackle all of the things you want it to take care of at once. You’re like a mean boss, who is slaving an underpaid employee.
- Outsource and free space in your mind. It was an honest consequence, so I hope you understand why this is so important. You’re a jack of all trades, and thank goodness you have so many talents, but giving up some responsibilities and only focus on the best of your qualities to ultimate your job is the best you can do to keep an healthy work/life balance.
- Don’t book every client that comes your way. Yes, of course, you have to pay the bills but you should be working to live not live to work. In other words, you must be able to enjoy the results of your work and take time off to do so, in order to truly lead a successful business. If you’re, instead, literally just consuming yourself in work so that you can keep up with the bills, then something is wrong and you need to revisit your strategy.
- Quit the comparison game. It is one of the most powerful tips to avoid photography burnout. Shut down your social media for 24h! Like seriously, take a day off away from the spotlight. You do not need to check on the many accomplishments of all the other people you follow on IG, and you don’t need to watch all the travel stories of your friends. Focus on you and sometimes remind yourself that social media are successful because they were born as a mean to escape reality and connect. They are meant to show perfection, and beauty, fun, amazingness, because if they showed reality, then people would watch the news and nobody would be fascinated. So, don’t fall for the trap. What you see on social media is not there to show you how unaccomplished you are in comparison to everyone else, what you see is not an example of what your life should look like.
- Raise your prices. AH! You knew I had to throw this in there! Of course, you need to recognize that the bottom line of your burnout is the amount of work you’re buried under and one of the direct causes is: you’re pricing yourself too low.
- Structure your routines from daily to monthly. You can not leave your clean laundry pile go unfolded for a week!! You heard it. Do you want to run a business, be successful, profit and benefit from it? Then begin structuring your life. Get yourself a (physical) planner and write down all that you need to do, and allocate realistic time slots for your tasks. If you don’t have a whole month planned ahead like this, you must start now.
- Plan breaks and days off. I don’t care what happens, you must plan for days off and vacations, too. Begin with giving you the gift of one hour a day just for yourself. Not your lunch break, not your shower time, not your jog time. Find another hour in which you sit and do just what you love. Watch a movie, color a book, sing, call your friends. Whatever. That hour is untouchable. Hide your phone, turn off your computer. It’s you and your mind that you need to preserve. Everything else and everyone else will still be there 60 minutes later.
- Write your goals (not your dreams), on a journal and break the down in tiny little steps. Keep in sight your goals, and be very specific with all the steps to reach them. Once you attribute reasonable expiration dates to each step, you’ll find that rather than feeling like a failure for not reaching all of your goals, you’ll feel way more accomplished for have finished lots of your tasks instead.
- Finish something. Geee, I know, in the mix of everything, you have a million projects open. Gosh I get it, there are so many things that become priority in our life on a day-to-day basis that it’s ok to leave something unfinished, but not for long. If you have something you started, and that you haven’t finished. Please finish that before you take on another job. If you force yourself into this habit, you’ll feel much more accomplished daily.
- Learn that you don’t have to say yes to all opportunities. I am a firm believer that to get somewhere in life and business we have to keep our minds open to opportunities, but I also believe that not all opportunities come with the right timing. So, not all invitations to gatherings must receive a yes an answer, not all of the clients meetings must happen when requested, not all photoshoots have to be planned today. Once again, get a planner, schedule your life and make sure to leave blank spaces for you.
- Quit talking about work. Finally, you took a break and you’re going out with your friends. Do not talk about work. Keeping your energy always in the same place doesn’t allow to your mind to float above the surface of your problems and therefore it keeps you trapped into a mind state of worries. You must be able to create a fictitious drawer in your head (imaginary) in which you close your work thoughts when you’re not supposed to work on them.
- Manage your clients expectation. It is not always everyone else’s fault if you get photography burnout. Yes, clients can be demanding, and in order to offer the best service you must be on top of your game, be responsive and reduce the gap between your client’s needs and the solution. But if your clients’ expectation are not set from the get go, and you didn’t take the time to explain the rules of the communication, then you can’t be upset and get overwhelmed when suddenly everyone email you at once.
Would you like some more photography tips? Then check out “How to become a photographer for destination weddings”
