Huge Life/Content Updates

Hi all. Sorry for the late one if you're in the UK, I really wanted to get this out there before I sleep.

As you may know (because I've discussed this on stream, Twitter etc) I have been really struggling with my schedule lately. Over the last few years my active projects have only grew and it's made me feel more and more overwhelmed to the point where around the Christmas period, I just honestly broke. I lost all my motivation, I stopped creating everything and coming back from that has been one of the hardest experiences of my content creation career over the last few years.

February marks 5 years since I started my Minecraft Youtube channel, the one that began this entire crazy life I live in now. It seems fitting that I am making new changes right as my 5 year anniversary approaches.

In 2018 the things I was doing slowly began to become unmanageable. I was producing too much with too little time to make all of it on my own. I'm not a big creator, so most of what I was producing and most of the stress saw no real gain and wasn't really at all beneficial. However, at the same time, the growth across my channels in 2018 was significantly higher across all of my channels than it ever has been. I want to build on that further, but in a way I can manage but mentally and physically.

Here are the changes I'm making, I hope you understand them and don't feel disappointed by any of them.

NO more daily videos (kind of). As you know, at the start of 2018 I stopped uploading daily to my Minecraft channel after about three years of never missing a day (or uploading twice to make up for missed days). This was a big change for me that did scare me because I'd been so used to creating that much content. I actually saw an INCREASE in my monthly views uploading every other day through January and putting more effort into the content than uploading every day in previous months. Therefore, I will be continuing this onwards through 2019.

The reason I say "kind of" not daily, is because I also have my Roblox channel. Rather than uploading every day to both, I am going to alternate the days. It will look something like this:

Mon: Minecraft Vid

Tue: Roblox Vid

Wed: Minecraft Vid

Thu: Roblox Vid

Fri: Minecraft Vid

and so on...

This will literally HALF my workload while still providing you with a video from me every single day. I hope that makes sense.

Events like Flux UHC, Welly UHC and my Minecraft Tournaments will be continuing this year but they won't be as often. There will likely be two to three seasons of each in 2019 as that is much more manageable for me than the amount I was making before. When these events are being uploaded to my channel, due to their "every-other-day" release nature, other content won't go out on the same channel at the same time. I'm not going to pressure myself to create more during these events rather than just enjoy them.

I will still be posting my Weekly Vlogs to my vlog channel (as that is a place for me to just share things creatively without feeling any pressure to edit well, make the videos topical or relevant or push out things that are 'trendy'. I like it that way. I have no desire to change the 'real' feel of that channel.

There will also be random vlogs here and there about LGBT topics, specifically as my own personal transition progresses this year. I am not going to pressure myself to make sure I post lots of content to this channel.

BeaBabbles. My podcast. I've felt all kinda of crazy mixed feelings for it recently. It's really hard to get the guests together for it, but I do want it to still continue but without pressuring myself to upload it regularly. This is just going to become an "as and when" I have time to create it kind of thing. I have too much going on to pressure myself into creating this often. It's not going away, but won't be super regular either. I want to aim to have an episode out per month, but again, I won't pressure myself. I hope that makes sense.

My blog will be similar. I'm only going to post on it when I can. I'm not pressuring myself to create in so many places anymore because I can't cope with the workload. Sorry.

Twitch in 2019 is going to be my baby. It's agoing to be my primary channel and primary focus from here on out. Regular streams, fun events and focusing on growing my Twitch channel is my priority for 2019. If you don't come to my streams, you should! We have a ton of fun and my Twitch community means the world to me. We have already changed our schedule for 2019 so I won't bore you by reciting that.

The entire point of all of this is to make my workload more manageable. Some days at the end of 2019 I was getting up at 6am, doing a 7 hour work shift, coming home, recording and editing straight away, squeezing in time to study my degree, then streaming, then finishing editing/uploading, falling asleep around 1-3am and then getting back up at 6am, and repeat. It's extremely unhealthy and I'm not going to let myself go back to that. I was severely stressed and I truly don't earn enough money from my content to justify literally destroying my health over it.

You have to also remember I am just one person. No editors, no assistants, nothing. I can't afford any of those things so I am doing this totally alone. It can truly be super overwhelming.

All of this being said, I have some insanely exciting up-coming projects that I am so excited to share with you. I'm sure you've all heard the looming mention of a Flux SMP... but we're keeping ALL of that under wraps for now. All I'll tell you is, this project is taking an entire team of people to bring to life. It's gonna be freaking awesome (if I do say so myself).

I love you all! Here's to a (hopefully) productive 2019 where I don't stress myself to the edge of a breakdown like last year. And while I'm here, if you're a creator too, please take care of yourself. Burnout is real. It sucks. Your health must come first. <3