Podcasting 996 - Path To Success Or Early Burnout?

Many podcasters sacrifice the majority of their free time so they can podcast. Some of them seem to love that, while others wonder if they're missing out on what life has to offer. Which are you?

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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Tara.

In China right now, there's some growing pushback against the 996 way of doing business. That, 996, is an assumption, and in many cases a compulsion or requirement, that workers will work from 9:00 AM until 9:00 PM, six days a week.

Now, I'm no expert in foreign affairs, but after reading that article, I was struck by how similar that sounds, at least to me, to the way many podcasters approach their show.

Quick caveat, this is not a political statement I am making. Nor am I trying to equate the hellish conditions exploited workers around the globe face every day with what we do here in podcasting. No. But what is similar are those long hours. The long hours we podcasters often put into our podcasts. Hours made longer for many podcasters who podcast on the side, who work day jobs to pay the bills and also to be able to afford the time to podcast.

Even full-time podcasters, or people who work full-time in podcasting, like myself, we're often in a similar situation. Long hours. My day yesterday began, as most of my days do, at 6:00 AM, and I finally called it quits at 9:00 PM. That's a lot of hours.

That's also quite unusual for me. But it may not be all that unusual for you. I know lots of podcasters out there who proudly proclaim their second shift, if you will. And for them, 996? Cakewalk. They seem to thrive on more like 8-12-7. And judging by some of the wee hours of the morning Twitter responses and replies I get from people, some of you are more like 10-3-7.

You know, some of us are fortunate enough to make choices in our lives. Everybody's circumstances are their own individual circumstances. And I am not going to stand up here or sit up here or do anything else up here and try and make a blanket supposition about how you should or should not spend your time, whether your options are discretionary or not.

All I wanted to do with this episode to end the week is tell you that if you have a choice, it's okay to take the day off from time to time, or bug out early, or just take the night off if that's what you need. Or maybe take the whole long holiday weekend off. It's okay, podcaster, if you go on vacation. It's okay if you take a break from your show and take care of things in the world that are not podcasting.

Once again, everyone's circumstances are different. I understand that. But if you want to take a break, and you can take a break, then take a break. Podcasting will be here when you get back. I'd much rather have you in this for the long run than burn out early like so many do.

Let's do some Boostagrams, shall we?

Now it's time for the boost-the boost-the boost- Boostagram Corner. Boostagram Corner. I don't know a thing about crypto.

Fellow long-time podcaster Paul Culligan finally went through the agony of adding funds to Podfriend, and sent me 500 sats with the short note of just simply, "Greetings."

Thank you very much, Paul. Now, go spread the love to other podcasters, would ya?

I also want to thank Andrew Clues of The Motoring Podcast. He's my newest supporting member. Woohoo! He used BuyMeACoffee.com/evoterra to send me a recurring coffee donation each and every month. Thank you very much, Andrew. By the way, I've added your show's logo to the supporter section of the website, and it's also in the newsletter. I appreciate that very much.

Hey, speaking of the newsletter, I'm about to hit 400 newsletter subscribers. Woohoo! That's pretty nifty. If you're not yet getting the newsletter, why not? It's free, and it gives you the fully rewritten article directly in your inbox in a nice, easy-to-read format. Go to podcastpontifications.com and click the big "Subscribe" button and enter in your email address. A bonus about having that, that makes it really easy to share with a friend when something I say really resonates with you - quick forward, and it's all out there.

Coming up on a holiday weekend here in America so there will be no episode of Podcast Pontifications on Monday. I'm also traveling back to Phoenix because I'm leaving town for the weekend, and so Tuesday's episode is questionable since that's travel time for me. I've got a plan to get something prerecorded ahead of time but after doing this episode, maybe I'm not going to do that. I have not yet decided.

But what I do know is that I shall be back next week with another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra. He's on a mission to make podcasting better. Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes section of your podcast listening app. A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected transcript, both created by Allie Press. Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. Find out more at Simpler.Media.

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