Avoiding burnout

I read a lot of designer, freelance and self-employed people’s blogs, and recently there’s been a trend going on – burnout.

I’ve seen people talking about being burnt out, about fearing burnout or giving tips on avoiding the feeling of burnout.

I must admit – I’ve been there. Everyone around me always says I need to take time off, take it easy, relax, chill, don’t work for a day. When you’re self-employed, taking time off does not compute.

Take, for example, being ill. If your self-employment includes working from home (as in designers), being on the couch dosed on pills isn’t in your plans. You will drag yourself out of bed, sit in front of the computer and work. And when you’re emotionally drained, your brain can’t switch on anymore, your numbers and words don’t make sense… you will bash your head against the wall and TRY to make it work.

If when we’re ill we behave like that, when we’re healthy we’re no better. I had trouble pairing 7 socks the other day. 7 will not make a pair, no matter how you combine it.

I was, as you can imagine, burnt out.

The best strategy to avoid something is distraction. You avoid your taxes, that’s why you’re watching America’s Next Top Model. You avoid ticking stuff off your to-do list, you are watching funny cat videos on YouTube.

Your boyfriend wants to avoid you doing work, he shows you a tin of paint and says “let’s paint the studio”. He’s a master of distraction, himself.

That’s how I ended up with a bright crisp white studio… and a bright lime green feature wall. I love that colour more than words can say.

It’s the happiest wall on Earth. Like people fleeing to the Wailing Wall people will come to my house to feel happy just by LOOKING at that shade of green.

I was on masking tape duty and up-the-stepladder fine detail retouching. No one in their sane mind would leave me alone with a paint roller, right? :)

Somehow, whether it’s the crisp white embedded in my brain until the word white didn’t make sense, or the fact that this room looked like a clown had lived in it (seriously, the walls were gone-off yellow painted lazily over blue and we’ve seen paintchips of green underneath – what crazy posse lived here before!?) and now it looks like an inspirational place… my brain switched off.

~~Off~~

And so it is that on Sunday, I dug into the boxes and piles that we piled in the guest bedroom, grabbed yarn, needles, and Cast On. Yes, with capital letters.

I’ve not Cast On for a project for myself since…. since….. well…. let’s see, I had a haircut in May last year, we went to Boston for my birthday, the Moon is aligned with Saturn in 3 sabbaths and the birds are not yet flying South… I think the last thing I did for myself was my Clapotis – which I knit on the plane to Boston.

I decided to Cast On for a pair of my Sinuous pattern, a pair of simple, swirly, sexy socks, with a lovely yarn – J.Knits Superwash Me Sock. I bought this yarn aeons ago, and I can’t believe I haven’t used it until now.

I’m almost done with one leg, you be the judge….

I invite you to join in my pain-free knitalong!

Buy Sinuous with the button below.

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Go on, you want to Cast On too!!