Jobs in digital marketing can be straining, and unfortunately there’s no magic wand to make them less demanding. You’ve probably been told to take more breaks, go for some walks, or spend less time on social media. Maybe you’ve even wondered whether a mental health app might help.
Whatever it looks like for you, your mental health matters. Here’s why.
Why Your Mental Health as a Digital Marketer Matters
Taking care of your mental health as a digital marketer isn’t optional, it’s a necessity. But neither is it a trend or something that you’ll find in industry guidelines. The field is demanding: constant adaptation, emotional resilience, relentless creative output, juggling responsibilities, little acknowledgment and a lack of stability.
Digital marketing is one of the few careers where there is no strict line between personal worth and professional success. Here are some marketing-related challenges that contribute to the that mental strain:
- Oversaturation and instability. Regardless of whether you’re freelance or in-house, inconsistent income and unstable job security are all too common. Especially in today’s financial climate.
- Information overload. The expectation to stay on top of every trend, tool, new platform and algorithm shift creates a lot of pressure.
- Emotional labor. Managing clients, campaigns, and audiences requires empathy. Yet, at the same time, digital marketers rarely receive the same compassion in return. Just more pressure from the audiences, clients or management.
- Lack of validation. Creative roles are all too easily dismissed as “non-essential.” Which can make some people start to wonder if the work they do even matters.
- Work-life imbalance. Notifications tend to be happening 24/7 and many of us struggle with drawing a boundary and switching off.
Then there’s the less common stressors such as inconsistent job opportunities, workplace harassment, imposter syndrome, and the high expectations from yourself. Combined together these factors create the perfect storm for burnout, which although temporary, can be deeply detrimental to mental health.
On the other hand, having good mental health boosts confidence, creativity and adaptability. And it’s these traits that function as armor in an unstable world of digital marketing. So in an industry built on drive and constant change, taking care of it matters way more than high KPIs.
How To Avoid Burnout as a Digital Marketer
1. Practice mindfulness
Meditation often gets a reputation for being “too hard” or “unsuitable for beginners.” Not true. But even then, you might not take to it straight away. And that’s okay, because here’s the thing, transcendence in meditation and mindfulness practices is a stereotype. In order to be mindful, you basically have to pay full attention to what you’re doing at the moment.
Even that creative flow state that digital marketers love is a form of meditation. It’s just not a version that you can rely on consistently without having some level of mindfulness in daily life.
The real benefit of mindfulness is that you disrupt automatic behaviors and thoughts that can accumulate throughout the day, creating anxiety, overwhelm and mental fog.
But if sitting still in the quiet to meditate sounds unappealing to you, you can start with something smaller and less pressure.
- Devote a few minutes to just focusing on your breath going in and out.
- Pay attention to how your body feels while doing everyday tasks. E.g. In the shower, notice how the water sounds, how warm or cool it feels and where it hits your skin.
- Use gentle guided exercises or calming games if you prefer something more interactive.
Self discovery apps such as Breeze Wellbeing offer simple tools and exercises such as “mindful breathing” that make it easier to get into the habit without it being like you’re doing “proper meditation”.
2. Choose activities that make you happy
When we do things we love, we’re happier. This is as clear as a fine day, but we also tend to forget this simple truth. We know why this happens: we are just too focused on putting out fires. There’s a deadline here, an important project there and then all our daily needs stacked on top. And so we often just forget to do something nice just for ourselves.
This doesn’t mean that digital marketing isn’t an enjoyable profession. It absolutely can be. You meet a ton of people, and you can combine your analytical, technical, and creative inputs. However, almost every individual experiences a “crisis period” in their profession where the passion fades. It doesn’t mean you hate your job. More likely it’s accumulated stress, burnout, or long term overwhelm wearing you down.
There’s no universal checklist on what to do to become happier because it depends on your interests. It may be that you yourself don’t know what makes you happy. In that case, journaling can help. By making small observations about yourself every day, you create a bigger picture of who you are as a person. Including what makes you happy.
3. Work on your sleep habits
Sleep is a primary need for anyone working a desk job – especially in digital marketing where your brain is constantly on. Sleep is also one of the needs that you can’t compensate for. If you slept just 3 hours last night, you can’t just “catch up” on it. No amount of caffeine, power naps or sheer will power will truly replace it (especially health-wise).
One way to make sleep improvements is to try different routine planning tools when you break down something huge into small and approachable steps. Here’s an example with sleep.
The big objective is to improve sleep; here’s how to break it down into smaller daily goals:
- No gadgets 20 minutes before bedtime.
- Open windows to let some fresh air in.
- Drink mint tea or another calming drink.
- Set your phone in “do not disturb mode.”
- Turn on white or brown noise to fall asleep.
4. Have regular me-time
Some people may say “I’m an introvert. I always have alone time outside of work”. It’s actually very healthy and 20-30 minutes of solitude is even recommended for most people to reset and reflect on their days. What’s important is that the alone time is of high quality.
Digital marketing work can make life feel noisy and hectic: being quiet and alone is a cure for that. Just remember though, it shouldn’t feel lonely or like you’re abandoned. If it does, those feelings are worth exploring with the help of a mental health professional.
In order to take the most value out of alone time, you can also try affirmations. And really try to believe in them. E.g. for the affirmation “you deserve rest,” imagine how you’re relaxing, how your body feels, what emotions appear. You don’t have to earn rest. It’s a right, not a reward.
5. Spend time with people
Digital marketing can be one of the most “lonely” professions out there, oddly enough. Yes, you may be in and out of meetings, but those quick and impersonal task focused conversations don’t compensate for that real human dialogue. For anyone working remotely, it’s even tougher.
Even the most introverted individuals need some social interaction. It’s basic human biology, we need others around us to thrive. Most of us need to feel like we belong and are a part of society.
6. Share hugs and touch
Physical affection like hugs, holding hands or even a reassuring pat on the shoulder feels good for a reason. When it’s welcome and consensual, touch triggers a release of feel good hormones, especially oxytocin.
Oxytocin is often called the “bonding hormone” because it makes us feel calm and safe. And so is one of the reasons a hug can make you breathe easier and feel more grounded. It reminds your nervous system you’re supported and not going through stress alone.
7. Practice gratitude
Do this small exercise: recall yourself from a year ago. You were different, right? Maybe you weren’t as experienced or hadn’t gone through certain challenges yet. And look at yourself now.
There are always things to be grateful for. And we should start by being grateful to ourselves. It’s we who left the comfort zone, tried to be better and kept going.
If you’re having trouble immediately recalling reasons to be thankful, know that is normal and common. Start with the small stuff. Write down a tasty meal you made yourself or a captivating TV show you watched recently.
Your gratefulness shouldn’t center only around work achievements, but also around you being a real person with needs and problems. Eventually, gratitude journaling teaches your mind to notice good things more easily and feel more content with your life in general.
8. Cut down on digital overload
You already probably spend most of your worktime on a computer or phone. You don’t need to bring more screens and buttons into your private life.
Digital marketing often means spending days looking at the posh lifestyles and luxuries of others. This puts you at higher risk of developing FOMO. It’s unconscious; we don’t control how we may compare ourselves to celebrities. But because of this, we can feel envy, resentment, anger, disappointment, injustice, and simply being dissatisfied with our own life.
If you can recognise yourself in that, try cutting down on digital use at least at home. Curate your personal feed to be more oriented toward mental health rather than influencers. You may find it hard to give up your phone completely. In this case, replace social media with something less triggering, like motivational podcasts.
9. Eliminate sources of stress
Meditating, doing yoga and walking, are all useful strategies that help cope with stress. But they are still just strategies. If possible, try to address the root cause of your stress.
For most of us, it’s impossible to just get rid of it completely because we can’t just remove work or kids from our lives when they are causing stress. However, if you are stressed when reading the news or interacting with certain colleagues that ruin your day, you can more easily remove or reduce those triggers.
A common fear amongst digital marketers is: “If I eliminate my source of stress, I’ll be unemployed”. But not every stressful workplace is toxic and unfortunately, stress is a part of almost every modern job. In those situations the goal isn’t to run away but instead to build coping skills or change your mindset about stressors such as positive nihilism or stoicism.
10. Try new things
We can have a million excuses not to leave our comfort zone. But ironically, outside of our comfort zone, is often where we can find the most happiness. You don’t need to quit your job and go travel the world. As always, the small but consistent changes are more important.
Don’t have any ideas? Here are some accessible and easy things you can try to spice your routine up:
- Try being a vegan/vegetarian for a week (only if your health allows it).
- Take a self discovery test – Breeze’s anxiety test can show you where you need a slow down (not a diagnosing tool).
- Support a newbie author by reviewing their book (look up Reddit threads on this).
- Do a course in something other than digital marketing for once.
- Go to a nearby city without a plan and just see what happens.
Final Words
Taking care of your mental health is surrounded by lots of strange misconceptions. Some even think marketers came up with “self-care” themselves to make more money. Others believe that only people with mental health disorders need to devote time specifically to mental health. Or that doing something just for the sake of mental health is unnecessary or indulgent.
These ideas are leftovers from the past. Modern lifestyle and work, especially in digital services, create new challenges and pressures. And we need to address them. Whether you use a mental health app or literally anything else that feels right for you, the important part is that you take your mental health seriously.
Think about it: If you break your arm, everyone will agree you deserve rest and compassion. But when you’re overwhelmed or mentally burnout? People act like you should just push through it. The truth is that you do deserve compassion. And it has to start with you.
