It is one thing to love the work you do and giving yourself to it completely and it is another thing to not like your job and hating almost every thing about it. Being a student and having a career at same time is a lot of work on this side of earth because of how things work here. I love being a student but the way things are done aren't making it fun enough, the lecturer behaving as mini-gods doing whatever they want, classes that will only make you so exhaust by the end of each day. I love school, I love learning alongside with other students, it's fun and lively but the stress is absolutely nothing short of mental, financial and physical stress. Observing these routines every 5 days in every week causes several burn outs.
I am a visual identity designer, I make flyer designs for brands, communicating every brands and business information using visuals that their audience can easily understand; I love what I do so much and spend lots of hours at it. But the combination of the work load and stress from school plus sitting in front of the laptop trying to figure out the best approach to make a design can be too much at times. I am presently writing this post in a class that is not conducive, everyone is literally sweating and the odours are in the air already; can no longer pay attention to the lecturer's teaching: and I still have pending designs to create when I get home. It would take me hours to complete the designs I have to do but I am already exhausted from the activities in school already.
I can't pick one out of school or career, I am choosing both. Hence, I have to live with the exhaustion that comes from school activities and getting home tired to work on a design. Crazy part, I slept late around past 3 am today and here I am tired already but still need to continue the design once I get home. I'm definitely going to burn myself out if I don't find a way to relieve myself of the stress. The class was so boring and made me more tiring. Everyone in the class were looking so tired but we still had to sit in class because that's why we are in school.
Identifying the thin line between necessities of work, passion and love for work, reasons for working and when to take a break is very crucial. Not too long ago, I volunteered to be a designer for an NGO organization through a friend. I wanted that experience of being tasked with work and deadlines, working with others in same organization. The first design I made came with some pressure, the prompt came in very late and the other designer fell sick so I had to do his work too. I was able to meet up in two days but I almost blew my head. I sat on my bed with my laptop on my lap for hours making researches, downloading elements and all that till I was able to come u wit something nice. I was so locked in that I forgot to eat and didn't stand up for about 6 hours. All I had in mind was that the design must be very good ones to convince the organization that I am good at it. I had a slight headache at first, then it became worse but I only adjusted my sitting position thinking that would help. I stood up immediately I was done with the designs, it felt like the room was spinning: I had to lay on the floor for a while till I felt okay then, entered the kitchen to prepare food.
Staying locked in is good but most he done moderately. I do three things when I feel a burn out or mental or physical stress. I try see a movie to relax my brain from doing heavy task, movie has to be action, sci-fi or an adventure. Second thing I do is eat, good food relaxes the body very fast, your body system feels a bit tired so you could rest while the food digests. I even prefer to eat and watch movie at same time, does it better for me. Thirdly, I sleep: but this one doesn't work well for me because it takes time for me to fall asleep when I am too tired. But I feel so relieved each time I get to sleep after a very stressful work or a burn out.