April Progress Report! (Patreon)

Hey everyone, we've got a progress report before a video this month, and that is because:

I am very much feeling the fabled burnout.

If I'm being perfectly honest with myself, this burnout has been creeping up on me ever since we started prepping for our move back in autumn. Kind of surprised it has taken this long! I've been making videos for years now, and while there have been moments of feeling sluggish and frustrated with my work, it's never been quite this bad.

For a while, I figured it was just run-of-the-mill stress, but according to the extremely trustworthy WebMD:

Many burnout symptoms can feel like symptoms of stress, but there are three ways to differentiate them:

-Feeling tired or exhausted
-No enthusiasm, and feelings of negativity toward your job
-Inability to perform your job

Haha, I recognize those feelings!

I think the past few months of adjusting to a new home & new friends & new weather-patterns-that-don't-include-rain have combined with the many non-video projects I've been trying to juggle (the stuff I mentioned here), and what I'm left with is a general sadness whenever I try to make videos. Sometimes I can funnel that sadness into content, but more often than not, I just stare at my computer screen and get real existential. It's not very productive.

So here's what I'm gonna do about it:

• Take a little break from the Patreon refresh I planned for May. I've already chatted with the Patreon folks about this, and we'll probably push it into the summer. (Btw, your survey results have been really helpful, and since we're pushing the refresh, feel free to keep submitting here until we shut off the survey in a week or two)
• Lock in my daily schedule to make sure I don't end up working during off-hours (or even worse, feeling guilty for not working during off-hours)
• Push the two videos I'm working on into May.
• Have a weeklong break in May. 

It's not a lot of change, but I want to start here. I had considered taking the entirety of May off, but it seemed a little drastic. I'll keep that as an option if I continue to feel this way for the next few weeks, but I'll let you know first, and I'd pause that month's billing cycle on Patreon (this means you wouldn't have to pay for the month, but I wouldn't post anything).

I'll still do the livestreams for the Novelty Instrumentalists and Jorts Enthusiasts this month, though, because they always tend to be fun!

And that's where I'm at!

Sorry for the downer progress report, but also, it's important that I keep y'all in the loop! If I'm feeling like garbage while making my videos, I'm sure I'll feel like garbage when they're published, too. So before I work hard on these videos, I'm gonna work hard on finding what makes me happy when I'm making videos!

I do have a little update on the next two videos, though! The songs are both fully written and recorded, and I even filmed one. Here's a screencap:

I'm really excited about the music in these ones. I put a weird six-part choral harmony in one. I play a recorder in the other.

Hope y'all are hanging in there, and thanks for your patience.