Mental Exhaustion is Real. Give your creativity a day off.

I've been putting out about 2 posts/day every day for 3 weeks now.

Do I deserve a day off? Do you?

Talking with fellow steemers on rocket-chat, I've noticed that a lot of them took a day off or were about to. This echoes my own sentiment: I might need a break soon.

Writing posts is hard work.
I don't care what anyone says but it takes me about 3-4hours to write/re=write/edit/find photos/ re-write AGAIN one post. That's taking a lot of my time and energy.

Add to that: curation efforts - I curate 1 hour every day at a minimum!!

Yes, it's just 5 hours but what's really tiring is the constant thinking about posts.
Maybe it's just me...but my brain goes in overdrive a lot. Analyzing and chasing new ideas, mentally writing posts, thinking about what I've read, what I've posted.
It's been taking a lot of me to the point that I get to sleep so tired that I can hardly read a book.

I'm f$%^&g exhausted.

Exhaustion is very bad for creativity. If you want to be more creative: SLEEP MORE.

You brain deals with new information - organizing, filing, making connections between new data and old - while you sleep. How much new information did we store and not files in the last weeks since we started on steemit?!
I bet it's a lot.

I have come to the point where doing my "regular" activities feel like a "holiday", like I'm not doing the work I should. I think it's a sign that a total rest day is called for.

Another sign is that it's very very hard to create. IT take a lot more off you and the flow just isn't there. Did you ever experienced this? Writer's block is one for me.
When writing in the flow, every word seems to be where it needs to be, the perfect word too. A good sentence is serene and satisfying. When I'm not in the zone, everything is wrong. Every word is a mistake. It's an uphill battle to nowhere.

Me, writing a sentence...

As always when taking a step back there's the fear of missing out. But in the long rung, what's a day?
If you're a serious content creator you'll be writing for years here, a day is 0.001% of your total Steemit time. Don't obsesses over it. I can tell you this for sure:

Steemit will be here tomorrow, the chat will be here tomorrow, you'll catch up!

I also tend to experience the gnawing feeling that I'm a lazyass. That this exhaustion is just an excuse to read and watch movies for a day. What is this?
The more I analyze it the more I believe it's actually an expression of fear. It's irrational!
I'm not taking a day off after a day of work. It's been 4 weeks!

Just like muscles grow when you're resting not in the gym, the creativity muscle grow when we rest.
I wouldn't be surprised if you come back with a few new ideas and a new drive to write more and better!

I plan to take a day off very soon myself and hope to experience all these benefits but if you take it tomorrow or the next:
Enjoy!

Even Dumbledore needs a day off

I'm off to follow my own advice now.
R.