I Recognized The Early Signs of Burnout - Here's What I'm Doing About It

Maybe this will resonate with some of you.

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

There’s a specific type of anxiety that always happens to me when I’m starting to feel burnout. It’s usually accompanied by the feeling that everything I’m doing is collapsing, and I won’t be able to realize my dreams.

It’s all fleeting, and it’s all breaking down.

Over my almost 37 years on this planet, I made a lot of mistakes in dealing with this anxiety. The worst mistake was thinking it was time to ditch the project I was working on and start something new. It’s like Shiny Object Syndrome laced with anxiety.

I was making rash, often emotional decisions at a time when I shouldn’t have.

And while I’m not feeling this exact anxiety right now, I can recognize when I’m close to it. And I’m close to it right now.

So let’s talk about it.

I Was Taking on More Projects Than I Can Chew

Here is a list of the projects I took on over the last few months:

1. Oren Codes - a website that would serve as my programming second brain (and build a coding community).

2. This Oren Cohen Substack - building this substack into a thriving community and perhaps adding an income stream from subscriptions.

3. Geek Peek Blog - a website where I review games, TV, and movies and be my general geek self.

4. Geek Peek Podcast - my main podcast where I interview nerdy creators. This also includes a YouTube channel.

5. Etsy store for digital prints - I prefer to leave it unnamed.

6. Dragon Crowns - a weekly fantasy episode from my novel published here.

7. More that I can’t remember.

I took all of this on myself while working a full-time job.

Add Financial Insecurity to The Mix

Over the last four months, I also lost 66% of my total income for reasons I’ll keep private for now. Thankfully, I’m living with my parents and that takes off the edge. But I do have plans for the future that I feel stuck on.

Most of the projects above, while also fun for me, were meant to make me money so I wouldn’t rely on a single source of income.

The opposite has happened.

I took chunks of my salary to fund all of these projects. I was already in debt, and if I dug deep enough, I would find evidence to support the claim that these projects put me in deeper debt than what I had to begin with.

How Did It Manifest in My Life?

So, the most obvious sign something was wrong with me was my weaker immune system. Over the last few months I’ve been getting sick more easily.

I also had a case of Cellulitis which caused me to take the strongest antibiotics my doctor prescribed for me for 14 days. That absolutely weakened my immune system.

I’m not usually sick, thank god. This was a clear sign something needs to change.

The other big sign was a huge spike in procrastination. I knew I had a lot of stuff I wanted to do but instead I just wanted to sleep, or watch YouTube and couldn’t “convince” myself I needed to get up and do something.

I also reduced my walks outside. This made me feel guilty about not doing more exercise. I believe I also gained weight because I feel it in my clothes but didn’t check the scale. I don’t need the added stress.

And when we started interviewing people for season 3 of the podcast, I would also feel a stronger anxiety before the conversation began.

Overall, I just lost the spark to work on my side hustles. This all felt like a huge waste of my time. I’m not making money; I don’t have a social life; and I’m spending more money on subscriptions and tools that ultimately don’t repay themselves. I’m in the pit, and I can’t see the way out.

For example, I keep getting emails from AHREFS about my blog ranking for more keywords but we’re still so far away from getting consistent traffic from Google to merit any Adsense revenue.

I pay for editing for the YouTube channel but most of the videos make measly amounts of revenue to cover those expenses.

I wrote for this Substack publication but there is no monetary compensation for that. People like you, dear reader, could subscribe, but I won’t force you. I still don’t have any paywalled content.

Those are just some examples of how I spend my time and money, giving for so long until I don’t have anything more to give.

I feel like my cup is empty.

So What Do I Do About It?

So, effective immediately, I’m tuning out every other project I’ve been working on, and focusing on making season 3 of the podcast. We’ve already started interviewing people and we have interviews lined up next week.

I feel energized after those conversations. Where extroverts thrive on being among many people, I feel like I thrive on 1:1 conversations about topics we love.

Once we record those 20 episodes and send them to my editor, I can reevaluate and see what I take on next.

I’m also going to break my bad habit of trying to do it all on my own and ask my podcast’s community to pitch in for the editing and thumbnail costs for early access and exclusive highlights before everyone else.

My body would benefit from some renewed exercise, so I’ll try to focus on that too over the coming weeks.

It’s my 37th birthday this upcoming Saturday and I’d love for my 38th year on this planet to be my best and healthiest one.

And that’s all I have for you today, dear reader. Feel free to subscribe and support my creative journey if you feel inclined, but if you don’t, that’s completely fine! I hope you have a fantastic week either way!

Talk soon!