Persistence is key to building a great career, but persistence can also lead to overworking and put you on the road to burnout if it’s not appropriately managed. Here’s how to avoid burnout as a copywriter and why rest is essential.
This might sound a little crazy coming from me since I’ll be the first one to tell you that being willing to put in the effort is one of the best predictors of your success, but sometimes you’ve just got to relax.
Why Rest Is Essential to Avoid Burnout
If you’re truly putting in sustained effort—and I do mean true effort; not just spending hours staring at the Excel doc of people you should be contacting but actually contacting them—you have to balance that out with rest.
If you keep pushing yourself to put in full days of sustained effort, it won’t be long before you burn out. And whereas feeling tired can sideline you for a bit, burning out can feel like hitting a brick wall going 60 miles an hour.
Burning out depletes your key resources like creativity, stamina, and determination for days—if not weeks. You need to avoid burnout at all costs!
How to Step Away from Work…at Least Temporarily
Be sure to balance your workdays (and, again, your true workdays) with days that have nothing to do with writing or pitching or anything like that. Pursue creative or physically active or leisurely activities for their own sakes.
Copywriting is also a challenging career. Copywriting involves a large amount of strategy, which can be brain-draining. Stepping back can help you recharge and come back even stronger!
When you’ve truly been working hard and you start to feel exhausted, take a rest. It’s harder than it sounds, but it’s also more important than you know.
Remember that life is always better when everything is in balance. Don’t work so hard that you don’t have any downtime, and don’t have too much time off that you let your work slip,
Watch More!
Freelancers are notorious for not taking vacations and working right through, resulting in burnout. As a freelancer, you may feel like if you aren’t working, you aren’t making money. (That’s true but it’s a challenging hard line to keep in your mindset.) If you set up your calendar properly, you can plan for much-needed time off!
In this podcast episode, Nicki and Kate have real-world advice for freelancers struggling to take time off throughout the year.
Your Turn!
What do you do to keep yourself from burning out? Let us know in the comments below!
Last Updated on March 21, 2023
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