How to Protect Yourself from Burnout with Karen's Weird Weekly Budget

Quality versus quantity and the spectre of Substack burnout

Hey there, Karen here,

Hope you are doing great. I’ve a got a weird burnout remedy for newsletter creators for you today.

Burnout is that feeling you get when you can’t bring yourself to start (or finish) your next post, your brain feels like an overused sponge, and the thought of crafting another headline feels as daunting as climbing Everest.

It's not just about being tired; it's when the endless cycle of brainstorming, writing, editing, and meeting deadlines starts to drain your creative juices, leaving you feeling exhausted and resentful of the work you usually love.

It can strike at any time, but I think it’s most dangerous for writers when we start to see a little bit of success. At that point, we get excited. Then we get impatient for even more subscribers and then we start pushing ourselves too hard.

Suddenly we are stressing about every detail of every post... is it good enough for all these new readers? Will they like me? Are they going to unsubscribe? Am I doing enough? Aaaaarrrrgh!

There are lots of remedies for burnout.

Here’s one I use. I call it the quality versus quantity budget.

Quality versus quantity - a weekly budget

When things get tough it’s tempting to post less often.

And yet, Substack experts say consistent posting is an absolute MUST-HAVE for newsletter success. I couldn’t agree more, consistent posting is crucial. But if you are struggling to keep making super-high-quality content week after week, something’s going to have to give.

What’s a gal (or guy) to do if they frequently have to skip posts because they are feeling too burned out?

Prioritise your posting schedule

Don’t skip too many regular posts, even if you are feeling burned out.

Building trust with your readers by showing up in a predictable way for them each week is ultra important. More important, I would argue, than the quality of your posts.

So make consistent posting your number one priority. But let your quality drop a little if you need it to. Yep, you heard right, quality is less important than consistency if you want to build a loyal audience.

Is it ideal to send out lower-quality posts every now and then? Nope. But it’s a darned-lot better than throwing in the towel completely. And that’s where you might end up if you don’t cut yourself a little slack once in a while.

Lower quality prevents burnout (but also, it’s kinda stressful in its own way)

In Substack Land there’s a lot of advice that recommends cross-posting, collaborations and guest writing as ways to reduce burnout and make life easier while keeping your audience happy.

Umm yeah nah. Working with other writers is great in so many ways, but it doesn’t particularly reduce your workload, in my experience.

A better alternative is to get a little lazy with your posts every now and then. Which is easier said than done, because we all want to publish fabulous work EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

For many writers it’s difficult and stressful to send out a post that isn’t perfect. And so they spend dozens of hours, or even days, on each post. Which can ultimately lead to them resenting their newsletter and feeling burnt out. Not good.

My contrarian solution to help writers publish lower-quality posts is to use self-imposed time limits.

Budget your time

The simplest way to create ‘good-enough’ posts without exhausting yourself is to set yourself a time limit (a ‘budget’) for each post. Assign a certain number of hours each week to create each post, and do the best work you can in the time you have.

Start the clock, do the work, and when time’s up press ‘Send’.

My weekly budget for writing my paid newsletter is 12 hours. My weekly budget for writing this newsletter and Medium combined is 4 hours.

The benefits of budgeting

The benefits of time budgeting extend beyond preventing burnout and include:

• Posts end up more concise and focussed, which is less demanding for readers;

• Lower risk of procrastination;

• A lower chance you will grow to resent your newsletter;

• More time to promote your newsletter.

Permission to be lazy

If every post you publish takes 10 hours to write, and no one is reading, you’re going to feel disappointed. That’s totally normal. 

The great news is that if your audience is small, you can afford to be a little lazy every now and then. 

Can you find a way to spend a little less time on your publication?

🍒 Could you make all your posts shorter, or perhaps alternate between long and short posts? 🍒 Could you change your post schedule to fewer posts? 🍒 Or publish in ‘Seasons’ like a TV show, with breaks between each season? 🍒 Can you re-purpose old content you’ve published elsewhere? 🍒 Could you do a ‘best-of’ post and share a bunch of links to past work every now and then? 🍒

Being lazy for some of your posts will allow you a little breathing space so you can keep hitting ‘send’ even if you are exhausted. Best of all, the more you hit ‘send’ the easier it becomes.

Final thoughts

I went a little lazy this week, and instead of writing something original for Medium I just shared a playlist of Substack posts .

And, guess what?! I came in under budget, leaving more time for hanging out with my friends.

Now that’s an antidote to burnout.

Your homework for this week is: nothing. Write less. Be lazy. Enjoy 😍