How YouTube Burned Me out over and over again

I am going through the same thing. My channel was growing pretty good then it all stopped and so did my motivation.

I have the same feeling about consistency. I wish I would have enough time for everything I want to make. Not only YouTube, but going to the gym, meeting friends, my girlfriend, other hobbies, work... YouTube requieres so much time. Often I wish everything would be so amateuer like 10 years ago. I watched a couple days ago my first uploaded video to my old channel. It was so bad with Windows Movie Maker templates... but it has so many Likes. People loved this bad stuff. Today everyone competes against full production companies. It is just unfair and burns me out.

Burnout is common among creators. I just recovered from my first burnout 😂 Here is what i did; I stayed away for a while and after sometime i noticed my batteries were fully charged.

A BIG "I didn't know this but it is amazing" moment- when you're uploading an "experimental" video, under the LICENSE section, UNCHECK the "Publish to subscriptions feed and notify subscribers"! (BTW- you have to do this BEFORE you publish b/c you can't change it after!) That way, YT should push it to the general audience versus to your subs first as your subs might "dislike" it and YT won't push it. I don't have hard data yet as I just found out about it maybe a week ago, but it'd be interesting to see how this makes a difference in my analytics and maybe for others too.

Yes, sir! I have been in the same boat or actually I am in the same boat. I’m a hospice Chaplain 40 hours a week, I do Youtube and I’m trying to do real estate on the side. My life would be so much more enjoyable if I didn’t do YouTube in real estate.

This hits home so much because I feel the same way at times. Working full time, I try to put at least 2 hrs into Youtube when I get off work, but there are times when all I want to do is rest my brain and relax. I am working on a schedule that won't burn me out, but this is a journey indeed .....

Very well said Kevin! YouTube algorithm will become our master, if we let it!

I feel you brother, this happened to me a couple of times in the last few years. I think a more relaxing way to make videos would be to film 100% raw unscripted videos (watch Sam Ovens, Andrew Kirby or Montell Gordon for examples). Or livestreams reviewing channels, or fan Q&As. Basically insight based content with no script, just you speaking freely from experience. I’ve seen a lot of education creators taking this route, myself included, and it works really well. I think this will save you a lot of stress, time and will actually make the process more enjoyable.

I get it man. I work 12 hour shifts, coach baseball and record and edit my own videos for 2 of my channels.

I feel you man....I'm the same situation as you. I restarted my channel ard Jun-July 2023 with ard 350 subs after 2 years of non-activity, with aim of getting to 1k subs + 4k watch hours. For the couple of months I fully devoted myself to Youtube, and posting over 200 videos till Feb 2024. Burnout is real! Now that I've achieved my goal, I'm taking it a bit more relax now.

I took a break - no uploads for 90 days and it did not have any negitve effects, on the channel still had good growth.

I want to go back to the simpler YouTube era but with everything I learned about the platform in my memory.

I’m going to thru that now , sometimes I think what I like to make , ppl don’t like so I try to do something different but then i think ppl don’t like that so I get stressed thinking thinkin thinking and thinking ,,,, im burnt out but I tell myself no don’t give up DONT!

Youtube is a job. We all need to take a vacation. 😎

I'm RIGHT THERE with you. I've been on YouTube since before influencers were a thing. Burnout is real and it's so stressful when you're putting so much into your videos and it's not getting you the results you want. I'm really good at making videos, I put so many hours into each video per week and it's like things are getting worse. I feel for you.

Same here, i think the key is to accept the burnout and enjoy other things while it passes, keep it going!

I feel this. I was uploading two long form videos a week on top of a full time job. Even though I have the videos scripted I don’t have the energy to film. I’m not looking forward to it either and don’t want to record half ass content. Thanks for sharing

I'm currently "taking a break" from my channel to work on a completely different kind of content on a different channel that's in a different niche. My videos are kind of similar to yours, and the work is exhausting ... and then of course I get like 300 views and I just roll my eyes. Anyway, good to see you're doing something for you, not the damn algo!

Bro I feel this… working 2 jobs and have 2 young girls but I was tired of watching on the sidelines of YouTube. Just started a channel and am motivated to keep a weekly schedule.💪🏼

Is been 7 years of editing, making thumbnails and everything else by myself. I was truly burned out last year to the point beginning of this year i was look at my growth as a whole and saw nobody cared enough about my channel for me to care anymore. I just been touching grass lately and life is good.