How to Prevent Burnout | Part Three

How to prevent burnout in photography // Family Photography Education with Hannah Mann

Welcome to the third and final part of my series on how to prevent burnout in photography (and thrive during busy season!). In case you missed them, here’s part one (pessimistic planning) and part two (every yes is also a no). To wrap this series up, I’m sharing my favorite practical, easy-to-implement tip for maximizing your productivity and minimizing your stress.

For many years, my workweek looked like emails and social media during my kids’ naptime, editing after bedtime, and every other task completed tiny bits at a time with a hundred interruptions throughout. I know that so many of you are in this same boat! And you know, that’s really okay for a season.

So when I would hear recommendations on how to have a more productive workweek, like time blocking, I mostly dismissed it. I didn’t even have a workweek – more like stolen work minutes where I had to be as productive as humanly possible – so how could I schedule out my nonexistent week?

These days, I work full time and I do loosely block out my tasks for the day because it’s an incredibly helpful approach when your time is more your own. 

In fact, I highly, highly recommend blocking out time for your tasks, even if you’re just working during those stolen hours. For example, if it works to edit during naptime, don’t check emails during that time! Focus on one task only, and you’ll be more productive.

But this newsletter isn’t actually about blocking out your day (read this if you’re interested in daily time blocking) – it’s about my personal twist on time blocking that has been incredibly healthy for my family and myself: I’ll call it session blocking!

Session Blocking

As I schedule sessions, I’ve learned that a higher workload is much more manageable when I’m not scheduling sessions every single week, but (as much as possible) scheduling them every other week. I will have a busy week full of evenings out shooting, but then I will have a week of focus and time at home for work and for family.

This is good for so many reasons.

• I can more fully switch off, instead of carrying around that nagging feeling that maybe I’m supposed to be somewhere.
• I can get into the groove of shooting, then into the groove of evenings at home. I feel fully engaged in each.
• I keep more weekends.
• My family knows what to expect. We can deal with busier times when they’re balanced well by time together and less going on. When it’s constantly ‘a little too much’ though, that wears on everyone.
• The rest in between is amazing. It feels great to not constantly be shooting, and makes my sessions more enjoyable.

The key to making this happen? Simply block off weeks on your calendar! When they’re weeks that aren’t meant for shooting, just don’t shoot. Clients can choose weekdays or book further out. And if you have the right locations (studio, shade, etc.) and the energy, it’s also an option to book two sessions on the same day instead of on separate days if you haven’t yet considered that as an option. 

Another huge benefit of this option is that it helps prevent the dreaded backlog of editing that often builds up during an unmanaged busy season. There’s a built-in pattern, and it is so much easier to see when we’re getting behind. We’re also more productive when we have a week dedicated to editing, rather than a week mixed between editing and running out the door to work.

Too busy?

I know, some of you may be working so much that it’s not possible to only have sessions every other week. Some tips for the really busy photographers:

• Only schedule sessions three weeks out of each month, so you have at least one week dedicated to all the other tasks of owning a business
• Block off certain days of the week. If you’re shooting so much every week that you can’t consolidate it, my guess is that you are not simply working during naptime and after bedtime – and if you are, it sounds like it’s time to hire help! 😉 You’ll still benefit from blocking out what tasks you’ll do each day of the week, and limiting which ones you will shoot during.
• Raise your prices, a lot! I’m totally serious with this one. If you’re this in-demand, that’s awesome, and you should be charging a lot more and taking your time back. Many photographers struggle to book clients, and you’re in a great position to build the business you truly dream of, that is highly profitable without burning you out!

Personally, I like to shoot between 4-8 sessions per month. That worked for me as a part time, work from home mom, and it also works for me as a full time photographer & educator who spends a large part of my hours on the education side of my business. Your healthy balance might be found at more sessions or fewer sessions, and you’re the only one who gets to decide how much you should work each week or month.

I never want to oversimplify all the work it really takes to run a photography business – it can be a lot! But sometimes, the simplest of tricks can genuinely be the very best ones. For me, session blocking is a game changer, even though it sounds like it’s not really a big deal. If you give this a try and enjoy it, I’d love to hear from you! 🙂

How to prevent burnout in photography // Family Photography Education with Hannah Mann

How to prevent burnout in photography // Family Photography Education with Hannah Mann