• Creative Burnout

• Creative Bliss

• The Focus Funnel

• Simple Summary

Anti-goals are killing your content and burning you out.

That’s what happened to me.

11 months ago I started with 17 followers on Threads.

Now I have 6,000 across all platforms and racked up over 2 million views on my content.

But it’s come at a huge cost. I got burnt out, overwhelmed and depressed.

So I built this method called the Focus Funnel to manage my content workload and beat burn out.

And that’s what I’m gonna give you in this Lesson.

But first, let’s dive into what burnout REALLY is and why you need its sexy alternative.

Creative Burnout

Creative Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental overwhelm caused by the constant pressure to create content and engage with your audience.

There are 3 telltale signs that you’ve got Creative Burnout.

(The 3rd one is the silent killer)

Exhaustion

The never-ending cycle of creation and engagement is overwhelming.

• It feels impossible to stay on top of everything.

I’ve been overwhelmed af recently.

Over the past 12 weeks I’ve done this on a weekly basis:

• Write 1 newsletter

• Publish 1 YouTube video

• Publish 1 podcast

• Post 1 IG carousel

• Post 2 IG Reels / YT Shorts

• Host 2 calls in my community

• Upload 2-3 video lessons inside community

• Attend in-person MasterMind

• Watch and engage with YouTube videos

And this on a daily basis:

• Post 3 times on Threads

• Engage on Threads

• Post 3 times on X

• Engage on X

• Reply to X DMs

• Post inside community

• Engage with community

• Reply to DMs from community members

• Upload 1 IG story

• Engage on IG

• Reply to IG DMs

• Reply to YT comments

• Engage with 3 different Telegram X engagement groups

• Engage with 2 different Telegram Threads engagement groups

• Reply to Telegram messages

It’s hardly surprising this exhausted me.

Loss of Motivation

Creative Burnout drains your enthusiasm and turns activities you once loved into chores.

• This loss of motivation makes your content worse because you’re disconnected from it.

I was so fixated on trying to finish everything on my list that I lost sight of why I’m creating in the first place.

• Every task felt like a matter of life or death because I’d zoomed in so intensely.

• I couldn’t understand that not replying to comments on Threads for a day wouldn’t be the end of the world.

• All my weekly and daily tasks became a means to an end that never came; the elusive completed to-do list.

• What was once a passion become a chore. I felt like I had to do [x].

Increased Shallow Work

Creative Burnout makes it harder to do focused Deep Work, leading to a reliance on Shallow Work.

• Shallow work = tasks that are easy to perform, but not particularly valuable or impactful.

Think back to my list of daily and weekly tasks.

• The daily engagement tasks = Shallow Work.

• My Shallow Work would take at least 4 hours per day to complete.

• The constant notifications from DMs, engagement groups and social apps scattered my focus.

• That’s not ideal. I want Shallow Work to take no more than 2 hours/day.

Imagine shallow work as a congested highway with multiple lanes, each lane representing a different task.

• As you try to navigate the busy highway, your attention constantly shifts from one lane to another, scattering your focus.

• Instead of cruising towards your destination (achieving your goals), you’re stuck in traffic, dealing with minor tasks and distractions that slow you down.

To combat Creative Burnout and its destructive effects on your content, you need a better state of mind.

Creative Bliss

Creative Bliss is a state of joy and fulfilment in the creative process.

You know you’re experiencing Creative Bliss if you feel these 3 things:

(The 2nd thing is one of the most profound yet subtle shifts I’ve ever experienced)

Rest

Rest is a state of recovery that enhances your creativity and productivity.

• There are four big insights about rest — according the author who wrote the book on it, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang.

1. Work and rest are partners.

2. Rest is active.

3. Rest is a skill.

4. Rest stimulates and sustains creativity.

Pang says there are 6 ways to stimulate creativity and 4 ways to sustain it:

Stimulating creativity:

1. 4-hour work days

2. Morning routines

3. Walks

4. Naps

5. Force quits (stopping before you run out of energy)

6. Sleep (7-9 hours)s

Sustaining creativity:

1. Active recovery

2. Exercise

3. Deep play

4. Sabbaticals

You should be doing 7/10 of those things.

When I had Creative Burnout, I was only doing 3 (morning routine, walks, exercise).

• Incorporating 4-hour work days (I do 5), force quits, better sleep, and active recovery have been crucial in helping me achieve Creative Bliss.

Renewed Motivation

Creative Bliss reignites your passion for content creation and audience engagement.

This has been HUGE for me.

• I feel more connected to the content I’m creating and the people I’m creating it for.

Importantly — this motivation boost has reminded me of my why and helped me zoom out to see the bigger picture.

• For the first time in a long time I understand that missing a day of engagement for whatever reason is not the end of the world.

• My weekly and daily tasks aren’t a means to an end, but an end in and of themselves.

• The joy is in doing them, not gaining something from doing them.

This perspective shift from “I have to” to “I get to” is powerful.

Increased Deep Work

Creative Bliss makes it easier to do Deep Work and reduces your reliance on Shallow Work.

• Deep Work = tasks that require full concentration and create significant value and impact.

• Weekly creation tasks = Deep Work.

  • E.g. newsletters, podcast episodes, YouTube videos etc…

Imagine Deep Work as a streamlined highway with fewer lanes, each lane representing a key commitment.

• With fewer lanes, your focus isn’t scattered.

• You can cruise smoothly towards your destination (achieving your goals), without the constant need to switch lanes and deal with minor distractions.

• This is why Deep Work is bliss.

Since implementing my anti-burnout method, I’ve reduced Shallow Work to 2 hours/day and increased Deep Work from 2 hours/day to 3.

• I’m SO much happier for it.

If you want to do the same, you need to take accountability and ditch Creative Burnout.

Here’s how.

The Focus Funnel

7 steps to help you achieve Creative Bliss, funnel your focus on what truly matters to you, and delete everything that doesn’t.

1. List current weekly and daily tasks

Self-explanatory. List out everything you’re currently doing on a daily and weekly basis as a creator.

• Use my list from earlier for reference.

2. Find your Why

Now it’s time to Simon Sinek this shit.

• Why are you creating content? What’s the reason or purpose for which you’re playing this game?

My Why:

• My mum died when I was 13. She believed in quality education.

• Initially, I wanted to give such an education to high school kids in my tutoring business.

• But I felt like a hypocrite helping those kids get into university when I didn’t believe in university anymore.

• So now my mission’s to share 21st-century lessons on health, wealth and wisdom you should’ve been taught at school – but weren’t.

3. Specify goal(s)

Your goals = things you want to achieve.

• The process of achieving them is fuelled by your Why.

I spent 10 hours simplifying Huberman’s goal toolkit so you don’t have to.

Here’s the TL;DR:

• Must be specific.

• Must have action items

• Must be measurable in terms of:

  • how long you spend on them,

  • how long you spend on action items,

  • whether you’re completing action items.

My 3 goals:

• Build Threads audience to 10K by July 2025

• Grow YouTube channel to 1K subscribers by 2026

• Convert 1,000 Threads followers into community members / newsletter subscribers by 2026

4. Identify high-leverage activities

Underline the minimum viable number of high-leverage activities from the daily and weekly tasks list you completed earlier.

• High leverage = low input, high output.

  • E.g. Creating timeless long-form content = high leverage.

• Minimum viable number:

  • The few tasks that generate the biggest returns. This is the 80/20 principle.

Key point: ensure your underlined activities relate to the goal(s) you specified earlier.

My high-leverage activities:

Weekly:

• Write 1 newsletter

• Publish 1 YouTube video

• Publish 1 podcast

• Host 2 calls in my community

• Upload 2-3 video lessons inside community

• Attend in-person MasterMind

• Watch and engage with YouTube videos

Daily:

• Post 3 times on Threads

• Engage on Threads

• Post inside community

• Engage with community

• Reply to DMs from community members

• Reply to YT comments

• Engage with 2 different Telegram Threads engagement groups

• Reply to Telegram messages

5. Delete everything else

Delete everything on your list that you didn’t underline.

• These are the things that aren’t helping you achieve your goal(s).

  • They’re anti-goals.

• So when I say ‘delete’, I mean DO NOT DO THEM ANYMORE!

What I’m deleting:

Weekly:

• Post 1 IG carousel

• Post 2 IG Reels / YT Short

Daily:

• Post 3 times on X

• Engage on X

• Reply to X DMs

• Upload 1 IG story

• Engage on IG

• Reply to IG DMs

• Engage with 3 different Telegram X engagement groups

Basically, I’m quitting X and Instagram (for now).

• I’m not deleting my accounts; I’m deleting the apps and not using them anymore — personally or professionally.

• Deleting those things freed up 2 hours each day.

6. Create time blocks

Determine the length of your ideal work day [x], allocate roughly 60-70% to content creation and 30-40% to engagement, and schedule time blocks in your calendar.

What this looks like for me:

• Ideal length of work day:

  • 5 hours

• Time allocation creation and engagement:

  • 3 hours of creation

  • 2 hours of engagement

• Time blocks:

  • 3 hours of creation from mid-morning to early afternoon

  • 2 hours of engagement from late afternoon to early evening

7. Implement strict boundaries (SAY NO)

Use positive constraints to ensure you:

• Avoid working longer than your ideal day

  • i.e. Get done what you need to get done within your respective creation and engagement time blocks

• Say no to anti-goals (i.e. everything that doesn’t relate to your goal(s) and could interfere with your time blocks).

  • E.g. I say no to a mate who asks if I’m free for coffee during one of my time blocks.

• Say yes to something that does relate to your goal(s) ONLY if you’re willing to replace it with something that’s currently on your daily/weekly to-do list.

  • E.g. If someone asks me to join their Threads engagement group, I know that will probably be a 15-minute commitment/day.

  • I don’t want to spend more than 2 hours per day on engagement, and all my daily engagement tasks currently take 2 hours.

  • So I either have to replace a current engagement task with this new one, OR say no to joining the new one.

Implementing strict boundaries is the hardest step because, if you’re a people pleaser like me, you don’t like saying no to people.

• But I promise saying yes to everything is a surefire way to Creative Burnout.

Follow those 7 steps to avoid that godforsaken place, funnel your focus and achieve Creative Bliss.

Simple Summary

• Creative Burnout: The emotional, physical, and mental overwhelm from constant content creation and audience engagement.

• Creative Bliss: A state of joy and fulfilment in the creative process.

• Focus Funnel: My proven 7-step process to funnel your focus and achieve Creative Bliss.

1. List current weekly and daily tasks

2. Find your Why

3. Specify goal(s)

4. Identify high-leverage activities

5. Delete everything else

6. Create time blocks

7. Implement strict boundaries (SAY NO)

The Lesson: Ditch Creative Burnout and enter Creative Bliss through the Focus Funnel.

And we’re all about keeping it simple at Saints College.

It’s my community that gives Threads creators the shortcut to their first 1,000 followers through writing online.

Join 210+ other creators here (100% off for now).

(or keep growing slow — if that’s your thing 😜)

Anyway, that’s it for this Lesson.

Keep it simple until the next one ✌🏼

P.S. We’re 9 subscribers away from reaching 300!

If Lessons has made you a bit heathier, wealtier or wiser, please share it with a friend. You’d make my day — and maybe even theirs!

P.P.S.

Finally, if you enjoy authentic content about the life of a creator, check out Björn’s newsletter. He’s my Belgian (and more attractive) twin 😇

Bonus download:

~ Community shoutouts ~

• Nolan Ivers, Urban Fras Plavec, Donovin Sims, Ella Drake, Kuba Czubajewski, Jen Lau, Matthew Callaway, Oladotun Olagunju, Tamilore Oladipo, Ronnie Walls, Rebecca Fawcett, Haley Faust, Monty Knight  – welcome to Saints College! 🫶🏽

Content I consumed to create this Lesson:

1. Feel-Good Productivity (Ali Abdaal, 2023)

2. Deep Work (Cal Newport, 2016)

3. Rest (Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, 2016)

4. Goals Toolkit — How to Set & Achieve Your Goals (Andrew Huberman, 2023) (check out this post for the TL;DR)

5. Start With Why (Simon Sinek, 2011)

6. The 80/20 Principle (Richard Koch, 1999)

7. $100M Leads (Alex Hormozi, 2023)

8. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (Eric Jorgenson, 2020)

9. Cal Newport — the Secrets of Slow Productivity (Ali Abdaal, Deep Dive, 2024)

10. Dr. Cal Newport — How to Enhance Focus and Improve Productivity (Andrew Huberman, Huberman Lab, 2024)

11. Burn-out an "occupational phenomenon": International Classification of Diseases (World Health Organisation, 2019)