Burnt out

[Sephirothskr]

I'm having this issue of being so burnt out from all of my work. I go to work and when I go home I literally have no motivation to work on a video, and now that I just started, (ON THE FIRST DAY) I have little motivation to do anything at all, and I'm starting to feel like my content I'm putting out isn't even that great anymore even when I'm putting my heart and soul into it, and it's just kind of de-motivational I guess. I'm not sure how to have a work-life-video-friends balance. It's really frustrating and I'm hardly as active on the forums like I usually am. I need advice How do you all manage life and fun and friends whilst still working on videos...

[BasharOfTheAges]

Here's the secret. Most don't. The most prolific editors don't have a 9-5 job, a healthy sleep schedule, a vibrant social life outside of the amv community, and other hobbies. It's give and take.

[Tigrin]

I've been making an unusual amount of videos this year, but that's because I moved away from everyone and everything I know, so the videos distract me from a crushing sense of loneliness and sheer panic.

I agree that there isn't really a balance. Whatever's important to you at the time kind of takes priority. I have a lot of hobbies and not a lot of free time, so sometimes one particular thing (like AMVs) takes over for a while, and sometimes it takes a back seat. I often feel a lot of anxiety not being able to devote the time I want to everything that I want, because I want to be good at everything, and being good at something takes practice, and there just isn't the time to practice all the things. Sometimes life just gets in the way.

The only thing that has really helped me with the anxiety and the panic over doing all the things all the time is just being okay with it. The constant struggle is not really worth it. I've tried budgeting out my time before down to the minute and it only just makes things more hectic. If you come home from work and you feel burnt out and just don't want to deal with making videos, I'd say give yourself permission to just recover and not worry about it. If you're struggling with videos it's okay to take a break and do something totally different (or nothing at all!), or to start a video and drop it, or to make a video just for the sake of playing around or trying something new and never sharing it. Whatever helps.

[ngsilver]

I work on my videos when I feel like I have the time and drive to do so. It's rare anymore (heck, with life these past few months I've even neglected my YT channel cuz' I just don't have the drive to edit that either) but when it happens it happens. I try to make at least 1 video a year, for AWA, so the closer that deadline gets the more time I divert away from other activities that normally take up my time. It's just how it goes.

One thing I usually do is watch TV/YT when I get home, while I eat dinner, from my comfy recliner. This helps recharge me after a long day staring at a PC in an uncomfortable chair at work. After a few hours I'm ready to actually stare at my own PC. Though anymore I wind up loading FF14 and game the night away. In most cases, I forego sleep during the week and just make it up during the weekends.

Either way though, it's really your own balance you gotta find for everything in life. If AMVs isn't doing it for you anymore then set that aside until it does. For me my will to edit AMVs comes in waves at various times during the year, so I edit when it's there and then do something else when it's not.

[UnluckyArtist]

There is definitely a life un-balance you have to be okay with. For one, my sleep schedule is Fucked and it's been like that for a few years as I've been working nights with the vampires and zombies, and even with a part time class schedule on top you'd think I'd be too busy to be making one video a month but there's other factors that make everything unbalanced like how I usually choose to do things I enjoy over studying, like editing and going out for movies or whatever, my grades reflect my priorities.

I'm also not a big gamer like alot of people, I'd only spend 2 or 3 hours a day playing vidya games if at all. I also have no nearby family a small circle of real friends and no significant other so that says something.. and often when I'm doing the boring real life stuff like work I end up thinking of what I'm gonna do when I get out of there like oooh I cant wait to dive into that project when I get home.. So it really depends on the person and their priorities and what they define as having fun. I'm only active because I'm an unbalanced asshat with a short attention span who drinks coffee all day, there's something wrong with me. It all basically comes down to either having serious balance issues, or being a normal person who actually has a work-life-video-friends balance.

[Sephirothskr]

I appreciate the replies everyone. Sometimes I feel it's also the fact that I went from being finalist in most of the cons, to all of a sudden not making any, and I feel that discouraged me. Not for the sake of winning, but for the idea that it made me think they're no longer good enough videos. I'm supposed to be making them for fun, not the contest BS. I'm currently working on one on and off I think people might like, but we'll see. I often make the videos for my viewers and fans on youtube and the org as much as I do for myself. So, it sometimes makes me feel pressured that the videos have to be fantastic. You know?

[Tigrin]

I often make the videos for my viewers and fans on youtube and the org as much as I do for myself. So, it sometimes makes me feel pressured that the videos have to be fantastic. You know?

I definitely know how you feel... and it's discouraging to repeatedly not make the finals while seeing the same names pop up over and over... it's hard not to wonder if you just aren't good enough... but, contests like these are extremely subjective. It's just based on whatever the judges personally like. Sometimes whether you get in or not just depends on what the other entries are like. Maybe your entry is really good, but there's a lot of really good videos in that category, so yours just doesn't make it. I try to keep all that kind of stuff in mind and not feel like I failed somehow when I don't make it into contests. I just hope people get to see the videos. But, I think it's okay to want to make videos both for yourself and for others. It doesn't have to be totally for fun. Striving for contests encourages you to do your best work and try new things, and I don't think that's a bad thing, or that it's wrong to hope your effort pays off.

[ngsilver]

I've been quoted time and again for this... "Edit what you want to edit. Don't listen to anyone else." (well, maybe not that exact phrase but close enough)

I don't think I've won an award at a contest (other then beating other staffers at youmacon) in a good half decade at least. When I did win awards and frequently make it into contests it was for my animated gif videos and if you listen to popular opinion on those they are not even AMVs. When I make something I'm passionate about and not just making for fun (See Go or last year's AWA Pro entry Drive vs the Dance series) the videos rarely make it into showings at-con, let alone competition, and when they do most people just don't get them, understand them, or like them. But alas, I keep doing it.

Sure. I suppose it'd be nice to win awards. heck, even have the videos shown at cons so people can actually see the videos and maybe like them would be nice. But in the end I make what I want to make because that's the kind of video I want to see at that time. If no one else likes or cares about it then that's fine cuz' I just added to the list of videos I want to exist.

I, and I'm sure it's the same for everyone else, am my own harshest critic. So when I do feel down or left out after seeing another round of contests I submitted videos to either deny the entry for whatever reason or pick other entries over mine to be shown at con I just gotta remind myself that the reason I made the video wasn't for others to watch it, it was for me.

[Mol]

I, and I'm sure it's the same for everyone else, am my own harshest critic. So when I do feel down or left out after seeing another round of contests I submitted videos to either deny the entry for whatever reason or pick other entries over mine to be shown at con I just gotta remind myself that the reason I made the video wasn't for others to watch it, it was for me.

I always try to do this ^
Still its pretty hard if you arnet use to editing now and then...

[Sephirothskr]

I've been quoted time and again for this... "Edit what you want to edit. Don't listen to anyone else." (well, maybe not that exact phrase but close enough)

I don't think I've won an award at a contest (other then beating other staffers at youmacon) in a good half decade at least. When I did win awards and frequently make it into contests it was for my animated gif videos and if you listen to popular opinion on those they are not even AMVs. When I make something I'm passionate about and not just making for fun (See Go or last year's AWA Pro entry Drive vs the Dance series) the videos rarely make it into showings at-con, let alone competition, and when they do most people just don't get them, understand them, or like them. But alas, I keep doing it.

Sure. I suppose it'd be nice to win awards. heck, even have the videos shown at cons so people can actually see the videos and maybe like them would be nice. But in the end I make what I want to make because that's the kind of video I want to see at that time. If no one else likes or cares about it then that's fine cuz' I just added to the list of videos I want to exist.

I, and I'm sure it's the same for everyone else, am my own harshest critic. So when I do feel down or left out after seeing another round of contests I submitted videos to either deny the entry for whatever reason or pick other entries over mine to be shown at con I just gotta remind myself that the reason I made the video wasn't for others to watch it, it was for me.

Thanks NG. That's so true. I'm going to be a film major so sometimes I'm torn between an AMV and making a real life music video again... there's this one song I REAAALLLY want to do where no music video or amv exists for it, and it'd be neat to do either way.