Beating Burnout

You’re hanging on by a thread, so let’s dive right in.→ Make space for ideas you’re actually into

Booking a vacation? Dreamy. Planning your third company event this year? About as fun as untangling last year’s Christmas lights.

Event planning is a strange beast—it’s equal parts spreadsheet slinging, timeline Tetris, and budget (mental) breakdowns. And somehow, on top of all that, you’re expected to “wow” with a brand-new idea every single time. Spoiler: that’s exhausting.

Creativity doesn’t thrive when it’s cornered by deadlines and docs. So let’s rethink how to make room for ideas that don’t feel like dental surgery.

Drop the pressure for a “big idea”

Look, not every event has to be the Super Bowl halftime show. Big ideas are cool, but so is clarity. So is keeping it simple and doing it ridiculously well.

Start with a vibe. A moment. A mood. If people leave smiling, laughing, or already texting their friends about “that one thing,” you nailed it. Sometimes the best events aren’t flashy at all—they’re just actually fun.

Don’t carry the creative load alone

You are not a one-person idea factory / logistics manager / emotional-support human / unofficial office DJ. Borrow a brain. Trade memes with your group chat. Ask your sister. Let someone else stress over catering.

You’ll be shocked how fast “I’m tapped out” turns into “Wait, what if we…” once you let other people in.

And hey, this is literally our thing. We help with the ideas, the logistics, and the random curveballs. You still get the planning credit, we just make it less of a headache.

Try something different. Or don’t.

Sometimes creativity isn’t about what you plan, it’s about how you plan. Walk and talk instead of forcing it in a doc. Do a low-stakes brainstorm with no bad ideas. Stop aiming for “mind-blowing” and just aim for “that could be fun.”

Also, repeat ideas that work. No one has ever complained about ordering their favorite dish twice. A solid past idea with a fresh twist? Still counts as new.

For us, rethinking our own process meant dialing up the personality and dialing down the pressure. It’s been energizing, honestly. Turns out “fun” is kind of the whole point.

We almost forgot this was the whole point.

Hot take: you’re not planning a team event because Business Insider says it’s what corporations should do. You’re planning it so people actually enjoy themselves, and, so just maybe, they remember why they pursued this career path in the first place. That’s the metric that really matters—the big money ones usually fall into place after that.

So if you’re over it, give yourself permission to drop the pressure, share the load, and chase the fun again. Because when you’re having fun, everyone else will too.