Mapping Out a Path Through Burnout: Insights from Prolific Cartographer John Nelson
Lessons on Dealing with Burnout and Finding Inspiration from One of the Most Productive Cartographers in the Industry
John Nelson is one of the most prolific cartographers of the modern era.
In addition to Nelson’s talents as a map maker, John freely shares his workflows and processes with the community. Nelson is a frequent speaker at GIS and cartography conferences, often demonstrating unique, custom products and the generative techniques behind the maps.
Nelson’s YouTube channel is another gold mine of John’s hard-earned knowledge. It is filled with tips and tricks for cartography, GIS, and map-making of any kind. Since joining the platform in 2011, Nelson’s content generated more than 800,000 views and is followed by more than 16,000 subscribers.
The One Minute Map Hacks series is a personal favorite of mine, filled with 75 short videos that demonstrate how to do everything from creating National Geographic-like effects to extracting, transforming, and loading data for your mapping projects.
John’s most-recent video making waves, however, is not really about maps at all. Instead it is about something familiar to anyone who makes or does a lot of anything:
There is a lot of material being written about burnout since the pandemic and the return to work afterward. There’s even a quiz that can tell you what kind of burnout your burnout is.
For Nelson, burnout manifested itself as a creative rut.
“The first few times this happened I thought ‘Well, maybe this is it, maybe I'm done. Maybe I'm out of ideas and I'm just going to switch over to doing something else that doesn't rely on making things.’”
Who here cannot relate to this?
During my own periods of burnout the energy to do anything at all, whether it is a work project or a home one, is gone. The overwhelm of all the things that need to get done feels so staggering that it paralyzes you from acting at all. Even baby steps are too much.
Burnout is part of a cycle. It ebbs and flow like an unpredictable tide. Burnout often feels like stepping off a well-marked trail and into a dark, overgrown jungle.
There is, however, a glimmer of hope in the cyclical nature of burnout. Like one of the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism, it means that there is an end to burnout.
“I'm happy to say so far I come out of it eventually and I come to a place where making feels OK again,” Nelson continued in the video. “And then it feels great. And then amazing. And then eventually I run out of energy again.”
Continuing the Buddhist theme here, there is a practice to end burnout, too. The key to getting back on the right track, in my experience, is to acknowledge where you are, accept it, practice your patience, endure, and even explore the path you are on at the moment.
As the saying goes, the only way is through.
To get through, it helps to change your perspective. Out & Up > Down & In is a simple mantra that can be used when suffering with burnout. It helps you snap out of rumination and seemingly endless loops of negative thinking. It is a simple reminder to look further afield and zoom out to take in the big picture instead of focusing so intently on the inner turmoil.
It is easier said than done. But Out & Up or any other mantra you choose helps to fix your gaze on the practices you know will lead to enduring burnout and then thriving again beyond it. Those practices vary from person to person. For me, it usually involves a mix of reading, writing, spending time in nature, exercising, eating healthy foods, limiting alcohol, meditating, and leaning into my closest relationships.
In fact, Tracy Brower writes about a new study which suggests that what you do outside of work is the key to recovering from a bout of burnout.
So, find ways to get away and be diligent about doing things which are different than your day-to-day. Turn off your devices, silence notifications and resist the urge to check your email or even your LinkedIn feed. Interestingly, physical activity was correlated with recovery, so you may find it especially helpful to go for a run, take a hike in the woods or go to the beach with friends or family.
Nelson knows the way through, and ends his video on an optimistic note complete with his usual self-deprecating sense of humor.
“It happens, and I'm sharing this with you in the event that maybe you find yourself in a similar situation,” Nelson concludes. “You'll pop out of it. I will too. It's springtime here in Michigan and I'm looking forward to making some stuff pretty soon.
“Probably.”