Big Sweater Graphic Design

On being burned out

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 2:33 pm.

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Recently, I participated in a live video chat with Eric Terry of Linty Fresh. Eric’s brand is growing rapidly; in the last few weeks, he’s started a web chat wherein he answers questions for other folks interested in doing what he’s doing. Some people had questions about his website and SEO specifically; he mentioned my name, and a lot of his viewers expressed interest in having me on.

He asked me if I could participate in his next chat and I agreed, and it was a lot of fun. It was interesting to field questions from people genuinely curious about how to improve their websites.

There were some technical difficulties, though, and some questions got cut off mid-answer; one in particular had to do with being burned out with client work.

Mija asked whether or not I got burned out on client projects.

In short: yes, of course I do.

While I try to keep my business small (the idea is that I work to live, not live to work), there are occasions where I’ll get spurts of business. Lots of client work means lots of deadlines which means lots of juggling; and more often than not, clients wait till the last minute to ask me to do something, and expect whatever they need done within days, and because of my natural people-pleasing tendencies, I’ll usually flog myself to get it done. That’s just the way it goes, especially if you’re freelancing: business comes in spurts, which means you’ll spend some nights working and not sleeping, if hitting the deadline means anything to you, so you’re bound to get burned out. It happens.

But I like working that way. It keeps things exciting and keeps me enamored with the work. It also means I don’t mind taking micro-vacations once a big project is finished, which is something nine-to-fivers don’t really have the option to do.

So there’s no question that you’ll get burned out if you work for other people on a freelance or contract basis. It’s what you do about it that matters.

The important thing when working for yourself is the deadline. If being burned out, for you, means you can’t make the deadline, then do everything you can to avoid it; your ability to meet your deadline is also your reputation and your client’s trust.

On the other hand, if you can work through being burned out (although of course it’s something you’ll want to avoid if possible), and at the same time keep your clients satisfied, then do it.

Regardless of how you deal with being overwhelmed with work, it’s very important that you remain honest and transparent with your clients. It’s important that clients know where they stand; and although one client is not necessarily more important than the other, you do have to prioritize whose project will be worked on first, and if that means a slight delay on another client’s project, so be it. But make sure they know if there’s going to be a delay, and make sure they know you’re swamped. An uninformed client is less likely to be merciful than an informed one.

Also important: make sure they know their boundaries. Many times, part of being overwhelmed is feature creep–a situation caused by clients asking, usually at the last minute, for extra features that were not included in the project brief or contract. It’s fine if they want new features; that’s not the problem, because it is inevitable that people see something that they need that they hadn’t anticipated. Your responsibility, though, is to tell them that they can either have new features at the cost of the launch date, or we can stick with the project brief and launch on time. They also have to know that new features generally will cost more, so that they’re not surprised when the invoice comes in.

Ultimately, it’s your responsibility to be transparent and open with your clients. When your work feels like it’s piling up, and you’re getting burned out, try not to panic; look away from your computer, grab a cup of coffee. Do some physical activity to clear your mind. Make sure your client knows where they stand, and do your best to balance your workload so that your being overwhelmed won’t affect their deadline. Being burned out will happen eventually, but if you handle it well you’ll come out of it gracefully and your clients will come back to you.

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