I’ll be explaining why taking the day off should be relative as a creative.
Taking The Day Off
Taking the day off as a creative should be relative because what one is. You absolutely have to understand that your content and assets serve your business uniquely. You’re not on the same schedule as the average consumer, so it should be understood that part of being productive is also knowing when it’s best to rest. An “off” day could and likely should be doing less than what’s expected from a full workload.
Your content and assets serve your business uniquely
There’s not a rush in having to constantly create when you’re a content creator because of how it works.
It emphasizes and properly rewards quality over quantity.
If you create content that sticks and serves your audience for moments to come, it continues to pay off.
And not just in monetary ways.
It should almost be looked at as having mini businesses work in cohesion to create a much bigger one.
This also explains how “punching in” as a content creator independently isn’t the same as doing it with a traditional 9-5 job.
A post today that took a week to make could work for you tomorrow and continually serve you throughout the year.
It’s performance based pay that comes with benefits—in this case it allows for you to call in some days because what you did in the past follows you today.
Creatives aren’t on the same schedule as the average workers
Creatives are not to be mixed in the same pool that traditional employees swim in.
That’s not to sound elitist but it’s just not fair to do that because of the amount of work that has to be put in with the creative.
We can go with projects for starters.
Content creators are expected to create masterpieces every time they hit “post” on whatever platform they’re active on and because of that their expectations are placed high among consumers.
Those projects have to be started, maintained, and finished by the creatives themselves.
On top of that they have to put extra thought into it all before sharing to demonstrate their personality and even competency with whatever they’re talking about.
They have to control their own schedule which sounds like a dream to most but it can be a nightmare if you’re not well experienced in governing yourself.
There’s meetings and research they have to put in before all the “fun stuff” happens.
Sometimes Being Productive Means Resting
Let’s be clear in acknowledging that rest is needed to be productive at any level. But when applied to creators it’s especially important.
To fully understand and appreciate the benefits for the creatives, let’s apply it to humans in general.
Sleep is needed to actually have energy.
It’s the same concept as when your favorite technology’s been running all day and needs to be charged.
After it’s set on the charger and gets a rest it’s able to operate without interruption for another set amount of time. It doesn’t need to be wired.
Creatives need to do everything possible to be in an enjoyable mood for creating the best work for their supporters. Sleep helps.
There’s also a set amount of thinking power and creativity that can be applied in a session.
Eventually you reach a “block“ that can’t be fixed without that break.
That’s a limit you can’t get around unless you have a team that work’s for you.
And if that’s not enough, there’s also a benefit in embracing the human limitations we experience. We’re not robots and shouldn’t fake like we are.
Rest humanizes us and shows we sometimes need a break because of whatever life throws at us.
It’s human and makes the person creating an even better person after embracing it.
An “off” day could and should be just doing less than normal
If you’re the type of person that absolutely can’t not work and feels the need to do something even on an off day, consider just doing less than a normal work day.
This was something I was encouraged to do at the collegiate level when I was an athlete.
An example would be to hit the gym and go light instead of going “balls to the wall” as my coaches would say.
Applying it to working, it’s comparable because you still get work done this way. It’s enough to say you did something without it being overkill.
And another great thing about this mentality is that it teaches a level of resiliency.
You don’t need to feel as if you’re settling, in fact it’s a compromise that satisfies any and everybody that’s in tune with your work schedule.
Last is that it makes being productive a habit. You just figure out a way to keep moving forward and minimize your chances of getting burnt out.