Burnout

The root of creativity is in the murky waters of deep imagination, and the creative process requires a rested, relaxed mind. The objective is to do your best work for a long time.

If you can do your work, come back out and rest, and notice how you have changed, and then go on back in to do the work and come out again -- over and over and over -- you come to see that we are all in one big graduate school of life. . .
      Also, your practice must increase your capacity for concentration. As we become tired in the face of life's wounds, one of the first things that will be taken from us is our capacity to discriminate and deliberate and focus. It's absolutely vital that you increase your capacity for concentration so you can tell when things are not going well, so that you can tell the difference between your stuff and someone else's stuff, and so you know whether or not you're dealing with an actual crisis or just fear.
   Every year I take a month when I am not helping people. I lay down my work. The real challenge is to give your best for a long time.  .  .
- John Calvi, Heron Dance interview,  “Quaker Healer,” (Issue 4, August 1995)

When you throw your heart and soul into a work, burnout is a risk. At my worst, I’ve sabotaged months and years of work. I get disappointed in my output, and so I don’t want to slow down. Rested, I’m unusually productive. Overtired, my life lacks a flow, lacks momentum. Lots of little things go wrong. For some reason though, I am reluctant to admit that I’m overextended. In fact, my impulse is to work harder, make decisions faster in order to make up for recent lack of progress. The result is never good. I don’t think clearly, my intuition doesn’t work properly, I’m more inclined to whims, to hasty decisions. To self-defensiveness. I don’t hook into a flow, into leverage points, into spiritual power, psychic power. I work hard but don’t get much done. I lose touch with the spiritual current that underlies my life.

I’ve long noticed that people who accomplish a lot in life put careful thought into what to do with their downtime. Travel? Vegetate? They have a recuperation plan, a recreation plan (as in a plan to recreate themselves, their energy, their fresh perspective). And, when they work, they put careful thought into the leverage points, into where to put their energy. They look for places where effort has the potential to produce an outsized result. The thought process surrounding the leverage points is absolutely crucial to creating a quality life on your own terms.

The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.
      - Amos Tversky

If your life tends to occasionally spin out of control, consider preparing a list. Signs I’ve learned to look for in my own life:

1.  Difficulty concentrating.

2.  Eat too much.

3.  Don't feel like exercising.

4.  Don't feel like cleaning.

5.  Don’t feel like reading.

6.  Don't feel like meditating.

7.  Feel compelled to do things that I know are illogical, and I want to do them right away.

8.  My life lacks a flow, lacks momentum. Lots of little things go wrong.

9.  Miss important things in emails.

10.I loose composure over minor upsets. An angry outburst should cause me to ask the questions: Have I been overworking?  What am I going to do about it?

11. I perseverate over minor issues.

What To Do About Overwork, Burnout

Experiment and figure out how many hours a week is your point of maximum production of quality work. Overall, as a society, we’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that the average person is capable of forty hours a week of productive work. Some though are capable of more, some less. For years I worked sixty hours a week and probably produced creative work of quality for thirty of those. Overall, my creative output would have been enhanced by working less.

Most writers work for three or four hours a day, then set it aside. They may think about the work during their “off” hours, and make occasional notes, but they are thinking or cooking or walking, and rebuilding their psychic energy.

So don’t assume you are the kind of person who is most effective working 40 hours a week and taking two or three weeks off a year. Maybe you are most effective working 30 hours a week, 10 months a year. I’ve read that you need at least three days off work to relax, and three weeks in one stretch to regain your inner momentum. For me, that sounds about right.

Meditations I’ve Found Useful

Meditating on love and healing, I’ve found, gets me to a place where I can understand, in a deeper way, how I’m living, the choices I’m making, the friendships I’m investing in. Without a practice like this, I get too easily distracted from what’s truly important, and what’s truly good for my life.

When things are going well in my life, which these days seems to be most of the time, I find it worthwhile to meditate on gratitude. Rather than think specific thoughts, for instance think of specific occurrences or developments that I’m thankful for, I find it most worthwhile to instead just fill my thought process, my consciousness, with the feelings of gratitude, and the associated colors and the emotions.

. . .

I can do a year's work in nine months, but not in twelve. 
- J.P. Morgan

Our inner power comes from the pause, from the quiet inside, from the careful selection of our response, based in part on a clear concept of the outcome we desire and based in part on a notion of where the leverage exists in a particular situation. Where can we most effectively focus our effort? Where will effort most likely accomplish the desired result?