Did you know productivity has a dark side? It’s true, and it can take multiple forms. For instance, you can be very busy doing all the wrong things. Or you can be very busy being the willing horse, working yourself to death. Overwork is a real problem, and it impacts your physical health and creative health.

We’ll start with working on the wrong things. You can identify this one by looking at your goals. If you don’t know what your goals are, it’s a good bet you’re not doing the right things to get you to them. Write down your goals. Or ask the very simple question, "What do I want most out of my writing right now?" If your goal is to be on the NYT list, or to have a German and Japanese publisher, or to write something that inspires people or to have fun, write it down. Then ask yourself, "Will this choice/action move me towards my goal?" Chances are it’s time to drop some busywork and do the real tasks that will lead to the goal. 

It’s a very basic truth that the wrong actions will not lead to the right outcome. You can work 18 hours a day and do absolutely nothing to advance yourself toward your goal if you don’t know what it is, and aren’t doing the things that will get you to it.

So you have your goal and you are working towards it. Now overwork can sneak in. Maybe it started by adding to your daily goal; you tried to go from five pages a day to ten, and at first it worked, but now your brain is a gray fog and you’ve got tendonitis. The best way to deal with overwork is to avoid it in the first place, but since our culture encourages workaholism you are likely to be highly rewarded for exhibiting workaholic tendencies. And let’s face it, writers lean to the OCD side to begin with. Your obsessive impulses and career/social rewards encourage you to fall into the overwork trap. How do you climb out of the pit?

It might take actual planning and discipline to have fun and rest. If you like, you can make a to do list. Lists can help convince your overwork tendencies that you’re doing something vital and crossing off items gives a sense of accomplishment.

On that to do list, write some fun activities you haven’t had time for since you started writing 6 books a year.  Social fun, creative fun, physical fun. You can combine physical, social and creative all in one activity if you like. Take time every day to have fun, to play with your mind and your body.

I’ve found that if I don’t make play a daily habit, it gets edged out by all the other urgent, important things I have to do. I make time to read, to do creative play, to do something physical. Beware the overwork tendency that will tell you you have to devote a lot of time and effort to this. You can just take five minutes to sketch or snap a picture or write a haiku or toss a ball around. Make it small and attainable, and you can fit it into your life. 

Reading, physical play and creative play all help recharge the writing batteries and keep the gray fog at bay. Physical activity that you vary helps keep the body in good health and the increased circulation and oxygen to the brain help writing, too. Work is a wonderful thing, but too much is bad, and nature has a way of forcing a balance. You’ll find yourself seriously ill, injuried, or just plain fogged in mentally and unable to work if you don’t set a working pace you can sustain. 

Good stuff on burnout:

Rebuilding the fire: from burnout to breakout

Morgan Hawk’s articles on burnout:

Burnout; not just for the big dogs

Burnout: success is out to get you

 For the complete Left Behind and Loving It workshop links, visit PBW!