Take a Vacation

Imagine you bought a beautiful new luxury car. One that’s decked out to the nines—black flaked metallic paint, leather interiors, a great sound system; the whole shebang. Every single day this car takes you to work and back, every week for groceries and errands, and as often as possible on relaxing night cruises around the city’s outskirts. The dealer told you to take her in for maintenance every 10k kilometres but who’s got time for that? That’s less time on the road watching the trees fly by. Besides, if there’s really an issue you’ll bring her in ASAP. No big deal.

Fast forward to 20k—the car is still feeling great, you can skip another maintenance appointment. 30k? Keep her on the road—no time to stop! 40, 50, 100k… Eventually you find yourself pushing your slick symbol of success down the side of the highway but, hey, at least she’s still moving.

Working non-stop without allowing any time to exhale will affect performance. A little maintenance here and there will ensure you’re operating on a full tank. You may not realize it, but maybe a non-stop mentality has slowed you down over the last few years. Maybe you’re in need of mental maintenance. Are you being pushed down the side of the highway?

I’m not the best at taking vacations. I worry I may need to save paid vacation time in case “something comes up”, I don’t like to plan more than a few days in advance, I don’t want to create work for anybody by stepping out, I’m afraid I’ll lose all of my good habits, and I can’t stall my creative momentum. Besides, I’m not lazy, dammit!

As it turns out, prioritizing yourself doesn’t cancel your creativity. Your momentum won’t be lost. And it doesn’t make you a non-contributor to society. If you’re like I was, you probably owe yourself a break.

Before really jumping in, let’s debunk the easy?excuses.

Something might come up. Sure. These “somethings” are unpredictable and it isn’t fair to put your mental health on hold for hypotheticals. If an emergency comes up, arrangements can be made. I promise you’ll come up with a solution—even without a reserve of PTO.

You aren’t creating work by stepping out. Later I’ll unpack how you’re actually making yourself more productive. With that thinking, you’re actually lessening work in the long run. Before you take time, just make sure all of your ducks are in a row and your team has the information they need to support.

Last, taking time to yourself doesn’t mean dropping all of your good habits. You know that your good habits are, well, good for you. If your vacay is meant to be good for you, why drop the other things that are helping? If you’re like me and enjoy a staycation, keep exercising, eating well, and sleeping reasonably. Post-vacation you will appreciate the effort and no habits will be lost.

Creative burnout is?real.

It’s a tale as old as time. Creative Protagonist falls in love with insert creative discipline. Creative Protagonist works every day to fulfill her dreams and truly excel in her field. Bystanders begin to notice. She’s getting recognition! Creative Protagonist is in awe that her flowers are finally being delivered. And yet, she can’t bring herself to smell them. She doesn’t even display them. In fact, she isn’t sure if she still wants them. The spark—what happened to the spark?

Results are good, this is true. But, the burden of seeking results is heavy. If we carry the weight of having to progress around every day of the week for an extended period of time, it’s inevitable that we’ll be met with fatigue eventually.

What’s interesting is I’ve found, for me, it’s the weight of having to progress and achieve goals that’s the most taxing—not the weight of having to do the?work.

What that means is that burnout is largely a result of my habitat. As it turns out, brief time away from that habitat allows me to reset and refuel.

I still “work” during my vacations.

This is a fact that often leads to people thinking I’m not allowing myself to “turn off.” But, if after realizing that it’s the pressure of having to deliver that inspires my burnout, I allowed myself to realize that it’s not the work itself I’m trying to escape. So long to the idea that time off means lost momentum.

Here’s a personal example.

I work at an ad agency and we recently crossed the border from a particularly busy season. This particularly busy season had me feeling particularly beat. I still loved the work but my usual eight hours of sleep was hitting more like four. It wasn’t the “doing” that just about knocked me out, it was the administrative mental gymnastics. This caused enough of a brain kink to prevent my creative thoughts from flowing. “When is X due?” “Did we send off Y?” “Does Z have any revisions?” Questioning the constant rubbing between deadline and deliverable created enough friction in my head to start a small fire. Small fire takes control, flames grow, the place becomes burnt out.

It was around about then when I clued in: a vacation could help. Sure enough, I stepped back for a week with no plans at all. This is important. You don’t need a tropical beach and a pi?a colada to allow your brain some time to catch up.

A week of good rest, good meals, and good company is enough to extinguish the flames and send a smoke signal back to the Muse telling her you’re ready to jump back?in.

Once I feel at ease, the brain kink straightens out. Before my vacation was over, I was creating again. Don’t let yourself feel guilty in these situations. Oftentimes, creatives think they “don’t know how” to vacation if they find themselves creating during time off. Vacations are like mourning—there’s no right way about it. Besides, we’re creatives. We create. If the goal of taking vacay is to return to our selves, creating again means mission accomplished.

On feeling?lazy.

Another important point to add: time off doesn’t make you lazy. I was raised with strong work ethic. I was raised to respect strong work ethic. I wasn’t necessarily taught the different between strong work ethic and overworking.

If you aren’t allowing your brain time to breathe, you likely aren’t working as efficiently as you’re capable of. It wouldn’t be lazy to walk away for a break. It’d be more efficient, actually.

For fun, here’s some math. I’ll use exaggerated numbers to make a point.

A graphic designer, let’s call him Bruce, is on the edge of burnout and operating at 50% creative output.

Bruce takes a week off, operating at 0% creative output. (-50% over 1 week)

Bruce returns and is now operating at 80% creative output for the next four months. (+30% over 17 weeks)

Had Bruce kept working, he’d have been met with proper burnout. His 50% would continuously decrease until he either needed an extended break or until he called it quits. And then he’d have to explain to his friends that he quit his job because he wasn’t lazy enough to stay. Sound strange to you too?

So next time you’re staring burnout in the eye, remember to consider some time to yourself. Time off doesn’t make you lazy, it recharges your battery. Time off doesn’t halt your momentum, it allows for continued creativity over the long term. You aren’t letting anybody down or inconveniencing the world by taking time off. Give your brain an exhale, clear the bugs off the grill, apply a fresh coat of wax, and consider yourself refueled for another lap.

If you liked this read, you’ll like my newsletter. Give it a shot to read creative blurbs like this just more personal and, well, blurbier. Plus, I’ll let you know when I publish my next article. And feel free to reach out if there are any specific creative affairs you’d like me to attempt to unpack.

Stay curious,

Kenzie.