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We’re only at the end of January but already “burnout” is the word on everyone’s radar. There have been viral articles, videos, think pieces and there have been a lot of us feeling it. While I may not agree with all of the commentaries, I do know all about the feeling of being burned out. It had consumed me at the end of last year.

So, I decided that “in order to preserve what’s left of my sanity and my stability. [I was] thinking of taking a period of hibernation over this winter.” I planned it out and then I took a fortnight off all work and then a further month away from this blog to hibernate.

Planning is all well and good, but when it actually came to taking the time off there were three key things that I really focused in on and felt the benefits of resting, nesting, and ingesting.

First, let’s talk about resting. For me, going home is always the best way to switch off. I get to spend time with my dog which is something I end up yearning for somewhere in my soul when I’ve been away too long. My mum looks after me, even though she really doesn’t need to and probably shouldn’t. I’m so focused on being there, with them, I stop checking my phone and scrolling through feeds after feeds of content that isn’t nourishing. I go to bed earlier. I enjoy the lack of London rush. I am home. So the time I had there over Christmas, which totalled out to around ten days went some way to curing the tiredness I was feeling in my bones at the end of the year.

I talked a little about nesting in my hibernation post originally. I wanted to spend sometime before the new year to get my house, literally, in order. I’d like to say I got on the clear your shit up train before the Marie Kondo series mania, but I’m not sure what good it would do me. Taking the time to properly deep clean my space and reorganise left me feeling calmer, as it always does. I made sure everything had a place to go to; you have no idea the transformative power a shoe rack has had on my life. I also organised my digital files. I created templates for the documents I create most and structure around folders which had become dumping grounds. When you get busy, or at least when I get busy, things fall through the cracks and then after a while, bad habits are made. So, I reset and built a nest I wanted to come home to.

Finally, I ingested as much new content as I could. I watched films and TV. I read more. I’ve been to museums and parks. I’ve eaten new food. Mnemosyne, memory, is the mother of the nine muses. Remembering, putting ideas back together, is the foundation for all inspiration. If you don’t have memories to put back together, you don’t have anything to support your creativity.

But after that period of hibernation, I struggled to get back to my desk. I’d lost any inertia I had that had kept me running, even when all I had was fumes. Perhaps, that’s because I was still tired, even though I had plenty of ideas. Perhaps, it was a sign that I really needed to just sit and watch Netflix. But perhaps, it was a symptom of just going for a hard stop with very little preparation.

When you’re running you don’t stop by suddenly collapsing to the ground having a nap on the road and then have the expectation you can leap up and hit running pace immediately. You slow down. Then you sit. Then you rest (hopefully in the comfort of your own home). Then you get up again. You might walk at first. Then, and only then, do you start running.

There should be something similar when you take a break. There needs to be a transition period to help you adjust, to acclimatise to your new pace.

I think of it a bit like jet lag. Once you know it’s coming and you can give yourself space to deal with it, it doesn’t leave you half as wobbly.

Hibernation isn’t a sustainable solution to burn out. Working to a point of exhaustion and then taking a couple of weeks off – then having to fight myself to get going again – doesn’t make for a good lifestyle.

I need monthly, weekly, daily reminders that I’m not a shark. I can and should stop. I have to prioritise my life over a faux-need to be productive. My work will be better for it. But more importantly, I will be better for it.

But it’s easy to type that. It’s much harder to deal with the nagging sense of guilt when I’m not making and to shake the idea that when I am making it should always be for an audience, for external value.

I’m working on it.

In practical terms, going forward from here I’m abandoning my official content schedule. I don’t want to compromise quality, whether that’s in what I make for you or for clients, or in the life, I make for myself, for nothing more than strict adherence to a self-imposed consistency measure. That said, I still think I’ll write about two posts a week. There’s a huge list of things I want to write and illustrate and share with whoever may be out there. But I’m going to share when it’s time to share, rather than when the excel demands it.

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My last post was a full look back over the year that was. So, it only makes sense that I follow up with a peek into the future and my hopes, plans, goals and everything else for 2019.

 

When I started thinking about the new year my first thought, as it is every year, was that I want to be better in 2019. I want to do more, push myself harder. I want to make work that really makes me proud.

 

But after reflecting on 2018, I’m not sure that’s the right place for me to start. Instead I want to focus on finding a bit of that elusive stuff balance.

So, I’m taking a bit of a detour from my normal buckle down and start the year making approach, and actually taking a step back through January. I wrote about this in more length in my post about hibernation. Essentially, I won’t be blogging at all in January. I’ll still be on social media and doing bits and pieces of client work. But I’ll be focusing on reseting, on resting and properly taking stock, which is something I think I desperately need.

 

That’s not to say I don’t want to keep working and making next year. I love making things. Genuinely, I don’t know what I would do without it.

 

I still want to challenge my illustrative work. But instead of trying to take on as much work as I can I want to be proactive in reaching out for the work I want to do. Fingers crossed you see me doing more editorial pieces and hopefully something book related in the new year.

 

What about new year’s resolutions? This year I only have one. I’m not going to buy any new clothes in 2019. Now this might sound extreme (or not extreme enough) to some but I just don’t think I need to do it. It’s a resolution that’s born out of wanting to be better to the planet and to my bank balance. But I think, a bit deeper down, it’s a resolution that’s not about worrying about how I look and just focusing on enjoying my days.

 

I think that’s the crux of my hopes for next year, I just want to try and enjoy it more.

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This little blog has chugged on for another year. It’s definitely slowed down. It’s challenged me. It’s frustrated me. But it’s still brought me a lot of joy.

So I thought I’d take the time to rummage through 2018’s archive and pick out a few of my (and your) favourite posts from the year. This is also the perfect time to catch up with any you’ve missed.

These are by no means all of my favourites, I love them all, but I thought a top 5 felt like a good round number.

Most read – 12 GREAT PIECES OF DESIGN TO HELP YOU REDUCE WASTE

This was quite a late post to make it into the most viewed category, but it seems to have caught your attention. My kanken design story from last year has also being surprisingly popular – I have no idea how these things work. This 12 piece roundup was a bit of a spur of the moment post if I’m honest, but it was borne out of a genuine interest in reducing waste and love of design. It does seem like these spur of the moment posts often end up being the ones that catch the most attention, perhaps it’s something I should lean into more in the future.

 

Most comments – How to keep your eyes fit and healthy as a designer

I wrote this one after a trip to the optician where I found out there’s a lot of work involved in looking after your eyes, which isn’t just wearing your glasses. I’m so happy that we’re having a conversation about putting a bit of effort into protecting something a majority of us rely on everyday, especially when your work has a visual aspect.

 

Favourite to write – I’M A MODERN HERMIT AND I’M PROUD

I was tempted to put one of my design stories as my favourite to write, because I love researching them or my polemic on doing things on your own. But this was the piece for me that felt the most honest and has started to push my thinking towards bigger projects. While I might be considering how personal I want to get on this platform, I’m still so proud to have written this and I completely stand by it.

 

Favourite to illustrate – BOOK CLUB #20: SAYAKA MURATA’S CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN

This was probably the hardest favourite to pick, illustrating posts is always the best bit for me. But I think the alternative cover I did for Convenience Store Woman is the proudest I’ve been of a piece for the blog this year. It combined my love of creating patterns, which is something I do pretty much every week on Instagram, and my not so secret desire to design book covers. Plus who doesn’t love a pink on yellow pairing?

Favourite series – The Monthly Roundup

The roundup perhaps isn’t my most creative series, but it’s one I absolutely love putting together, probably because it’s linked to my newsletter. I love sharing the best things I’ve read and the work of brilliant creative people. It’s a post that comes naturally, which something I’m really looking for these days.

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The holidays are fast approaching, which can mean a lot of different things for different people. Depending on what your job is, this might be your busiest season or your quietest. Depending on your circle of loved ones, this might be a time to spend as much time with them as possible or as little as you can manage. Depending on what you believe, this might be a time to rejoice or just another cold few days. But wherever you are on the holiday spectrum, the end of the year should be a signal to take a little break.

 

About a month ago I wrote about my plans for hibernation over January, which includes a full month off blogging. I’m not going to advocate that everyone takes a full month off whatever they’re doing, because it’s largely unfeasible – I’ll still be going to work and taking commissions so for me it’s still only a partial break.

But I think the principles I’ve set out in my hibernation plan are a good blueprint for a break of any length this winter.

 

  • Feed your body and mind – when animals hibernate, they build up big stocks of food to keep them nourished throughout the winter. I’m not going to build a pile of seeds and nuts, but I am going to try to look after myself a little bit better. I also want to take some time to just consume arts, and media, and new experiences, without necessarily having to create off the back of it.
  • Put your feet up – this is the big one. I just want to sleep and relax. I don’t want to worry about scavenging for my next instagram post or my next blog idea.
  • Slow your rhythm – animals who hibernate slow down their metabolic rate to survive not eating and being cold for so long. I want to take a bit of inspiration out of that and set myself up with a new, slower schedule.
  • Set up your nest – I always imagine well stocked burrows when I think of hibernators and I want to take this opportunity to clean up my space a little. As much as I try to keep on top of things both my physical and digital spaces need some TLC and that takes time, and it takes being prioritised.

 

It’s always important to take breaks to recharge, and the end of the year gives you the perfect excuse. It also gives you the perfect opportunity to reflect on what you’ve achieved and how you might like to change your course, or batten down the sails, for the year ahead.

The switch over from December 31st and January 1st is a completely arbitrary milestone, and I often end up putting in my own throughout the year. But sometimes we need that external force to give us a push.

 

So rest up and reflect. I promise, no matter how busy, how festive, or how loving you’re feeling it will do you a world of good. We’re not sharks, we’re humans, and we need to stop sometimes in order to keep going.

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I started this year, as I did last year, by making a big post of my goals for the year. I stuck that posted up above my desk and marked off as I went. I shared them here with you, as a way of making myself accountable, so I thought I’d share how I got on. This is an honest review of those goals, as well as how well I managed to accomplish them.

 

WHAT DID I SET OUT TO DO?

  1. Read 25 books.
  2. Take a photo/video of some kind every day.
  3. Learn 10 new skills.
  4. Do 120 hours of exercise.
  5. Implement a better sleep schedule.

By about halfway through this year, I realised I wasn’t doing all that well with my goals. Last year I found that having a big poster where I could mark my progress was really helpful, but this year it was too overwhelming. I’d pledged to do too much, and I just couldn’t keep up with it all. So instead of helping me mark my progress, the poster became a reminder of everything I was letting slip. Unsurprisingly, I took that poster down.

 

In the end I don’t think I’ve actually done that badly against a lot of the things I wanted to do, but I think I didn’t set out to do them in the right way.

 

I’ve read 22 books and counting.

I’ve exercised at least 3 times every week.

I’ve tried way more new things this year at work and home.

 

I haven’t become a daily photographer and I don’t sleep any better. But, I have at least made some progress.

 

I think the issues with this years resolutions was I had too many habit based changes to make at once. Personally, I can only really change one behaviour at once. I could have probably managed this list if it were the only thing I was working on, but I have a whole life to lead beside my resolutions.

 

So, next year I’m changing my approach. I’m going to simplify my resolutions. In fact, I’m only going to have one – major tease for a post coming next year.

 

Instead of trying to change everything at once, I want to change one habit then set myself a few goals that feel like they’re a part of my day to day life, rather than something I have to do on top of what is already too busy schedule. Next year is all about streamlining and focus.