Bookish Burnout: How To Get Through It
It’s 7pm and I’ve just eaten dinner. I go to my bedroom and decide it’s going to be a reading night, so I grab my kindle and crawl under the covers. I grab my phone to check the time, it's 7:20, so I think to myself “I’ll just scroll until 7:30 and then I’ll start reading.” I check my phone again and it's now 8:45 and I’ve been sitting in bed with my book open, doomscrolling on my phone. I think to myself, maybe just a few more minutes. Those minutes turn into hours and the next thing I know its 11:30 and I need to go to bed. I have work in the morning, so if I don’t go to bed soon, I’ll regret that choice in the morning. So I roll over, put my phone on the charger. But wait, now my brain doesn’t want to turn off, so I anxious spiral until I fall asleep. Wake up, repeat.
Does any of this sound familiar? If it doesn’t, just know I envy you. Is it anxiety? Or is it burnout? Or a mix of both?
With the weight of the world at the moment, I’ve found it’s far easier for me to experience burnout and it takes me less and less to get there. Not only with reading, but with everyday tasks. I just feel tired and numb, with no desire to do anything social or even pick up my book. It takes everything I have some days to talk to people at my job. If you feel any of this, just know you are not alone. I’ve talked to several others who feel this exact same way. It’s hard to exist right now, let alone be productive. I know the burnout has been hitting me the hardest when it comes to reading, but also when it comes to being creative. Even taking photos or playing in Canva is enough to make me want to dissociate and doomscroll. So how do we even try to combat that? It’s a personal journey for each person, but I’ll tell you what helps me.
The first thing I always try to do is to reread a favorite book, a comfort read, something I love. I know when I feel like nothing is hitting, sometimes I can go back to a read I loved and give it a reread to help me get out of that slump I’m trapped in. And trapped is how I would describe it. I read a super hyped fantasy book last year that ended up being worse than expected and I’m still suffering from it. I haven’t had a desire to even finish a series by an author I love. So, try your best not to overwhelm yourself and remember you are only on your schedule and have nobody to keep up with.
Another thing to remember is to work with the good days. Let’s say you have a day where you’re feeling great, maybe your hair curled the right way and your eyeliner is a perfect wing. Take that high and ride it. If you want to stay active on booksta, use your good days and take a ton of photos you can use on the bad days. Take stacks, flat lays, books you love, things that don’t require a hefty caption but will keep you actively engaged. I try to do this myself if I’m having a particularly good day and it’s helpful to just be able to go pull a photo and post something I feel like posting.
Sometimes life feels overwhelming, so make sure you rely on your friends. It’s totally ok to not feel ok and to not feel ok about feeling that way. I know I have friends who I feel absolutely no pressure to mask around, so when I’m feeling rough, that’s who I talk to. I can tell them all my woes and know they won’t judge me for feeling miserable about the silliest things. And if you don’t have someone like that, my DM’s are always open. I’ll be that person for you.
When you feel like you can’t get moving on anything, try doing something you ARE excited about. I’ve found recently working on my WIP has kept me sane. Whether it’s working on the cover for hours until I like what I have, listening to the playlist I’ve curated while I write, or just thinking up ideas and jotting them in my notes, I’ve found that these things keep me functional when I don’t want to do anything else. I’ve discovered that I’m excited about these things and what they could turn into and for some reason, that helps lessen the anxiety for me and helps pull me out of that burnout stage, even if only for that evening. Do something, anything, you’re excited to do. That book you want to read will be there when you feel better, fear not. And there are new ones getting published every day, don’t let the FOMO get you.
Above all else, remember to give yourself the room to breathe. Again, this isn’t a race, and you don’t need to compare yourself to other people. We are all human and being human means sometimes you feel rough and need a break. If you have ARC’s, street teams, and rep teams, it is totally ok to reach out to them and tell them you need to step back. I’m sure most of the time, they’d prefer you take the space you need versus not communicating and falling into a deeper dark hole.
And lastly, go out and live. If you aren’t happy being at home, trying to disappear into other worlds with other characters’ problems, go out and live your life. Do other things you love, see people you love, travel, go get coffee, visit your book friends, go sit in the middle of Barnes & Noble and people watch. Remember that the seasonal depression and weather might be making us all sadder right now, but there are warmer days around the corner. Like plants, we will perk right up with a little bit of sunlight and warmth.
There’s no exact formula to combating burnout.
These are just some of the things that work for me most of the time and I hope at least one of them works for you. Sometimes it takes a different formula to get a good result, but there’s always something to help pull you out of that slump. Eventually that burnout will melt away and you’ll be feeling better. Just remember to stay true to who you are and that your feelings matter. What you love will always come back to you when you’re ready for it.