Ending Daily Vlogs after 15 Years

Summary

Stephen Vlog is bringing an end to its daily vlogs after 15 years, a decision rooted in addressing creative burnout and seeking a better quality of life. The creator, Stephen George, reflects on the history of his channel, the challenges of daily content creation, and the pressures he faced over the years. Throughout 2024, Stephen experienced a heightened sense of burnout, prompting him to reevaluate his priorities. Although stepping away from daily vlogging was a difficult decision, Stephen is optimistic about the future and excited to create content on his own terms. He looks forward to healing from burnout and exploring new projects in the coming months.

Highlights

• Stephen George ends daily vlogs after 15 years of commitment. 🎥
• The revelation of burnout led to this pivotal decision. 💡
• For years, Stephen felt compelled to maintain daily vlogs, avoiding questioning the toll it took. ⏳
• Support from the community played a vital role in the decision making process. 🌐
• A new chapter begins as Stephen prioritizes creativity and personal well-being. 📖

Key Takeaways

• Stephen Vlog ends daily vlogs after 15 years due to creative burnout and personal well-being. 🌟
• Stephen found new perspectives and support from his audience which enabled him to consider ending the daily vlog. 🤝
• The workload of daily vlogs, alongside other commitments, led Stephen to experience severe burnout. 🔥
• Stephen plans to create content at his own pace, aiming for quality and personal fulfillment. 🎨
• Ending daily vlogs is seen as a necessary step for Stephen's overall health and future creativity. 🌻

Overview

After 15 years of daily vlogs, Stephen George is ending the journey he began with StephenVlog. Reflecting on the monumental journey that started during his college days as a film student, Stephen shares his decision rooted in combatting creative burnout and pursuing content creation on his own terms going forward.

Throughout the video, Stephen candidly discusses the weight of maintaining daily vlogs, which despite bringing joy and creativity into his life, also led to emotional and psychological stresses. The pressures mounted, particularly in 2024, intensifying feelings of burnout and compelling Stephen to make this necessary and personal decision to stop daily vlogging.

Moving forward, Stephen is embracing a future where content creation isn't bound by daily demands but driven by passion and personal joy. This transition aims to rekindle his creative spirit while also allowing him to focus on other projects and personal growth, ultimately leading to a new phase of fulfilling content creation.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and decision to end daily vlogs The chapter begins with the narrator admitting uncertainty about how to record the vlog, acknowledging its dramatic appearance. The vlog stands out as impactful and significant among other videos. The narrator has decided it's acceptable to embrace the drama for this important message, and then extends a welcome to viewers.
• 01:30 - 04:30: History of starting the vlogs and passion This chapter discusses the history and motivation behind starting vlogs, noting that the protagonist didn't start vlogging until mid-January despite typically marking the day. It appears to reflect on past vlogging habits with a sense of nostalgia or correction for not capturing January 1st's moments.
• 04:30 - 09:30: Challenges with maintaining daily vlogs In this chapter, the narrator discusses the decision to end their daily vlogs after 15 years. The decision seems to be a recent one, which is why there wasn't much prior warning.
• 09:30 - 19:30: The turning point in 2024 In 2024, Stephen George reflects on a significant decision marking a turning point in his journey. He shares a brief history of his Vlog, explaining the evolution of his content and the path that led him to this moment. He acknowledges the potential fresh audience who might be unfamiliar with his work, introducing himself as a content creator.
• 19:30 - 28:30: Realization of burnout and decision for change The chapter discusses the realization of the author's burnout and decision for change. The author reflects on their long history of creating daily Vlog content on YouTube, which started in 2009 while attending college as a film student and editor. The author initially began vlogging to have additional footage to edit, highlighting the beginning of their YouTube journey.
• 28:30 - 35:00: Conclusion and future plans The chapter 'Conclusion and future plans' explores the evolution of the speaker's engagement with their work. Initially, what began as a task quickly transformed into a meaningful endeavor—serving as a method for preserving memories and a conduit for creative expression. The speaker discovered genuine enjoyment in documenting life, signifying a successful and fulfilling integration of personal interests with professional activities. This chapter encapsulates reflections on past achievements and looks forward to future possibilities.

Ending Daily Vlogs after 15 Years Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I'm gonna be honest I didn't really know where to record this Vlog or what it should look like I settled on this and now that I'm looking at it I'm like this is looks pretty dramatic although In fairness when I think about all of the videos I've made or will make you know this one's this one's pretty impactful it's pretty important so maybe the fact that it looks kind of dramatic it's okay I've decided that it's okay hello everyone and welcome to
• 00:30 - 01:00 January this is normally the part of the Vlog where I would tell you the day of the week but it's irrelevant um because it's not January 1st it's actually the middle of January and um you might be saying hm did you not record the the the Vlog for January 1st I did not I did
• 01:00 - 01:30 not after 15 years I think it's time to end the daily Vlogs and I I know that some of you are thinking uh okay but why why wasn't there any more warning than this why is it coming up now and the answer to that is this was a a fairly recent decision however even though it was a
• 01:30 - 02:00 recent decision it's been a long time coming so I want to talk to you a little bit about the history of the Vlog and more importantly how I got to this exact point in time uh so let's start with a a little intro especially because there's probably going to be someone that stumbles across this video doesn't know anything about this hi my name is stepen George um I've been creating content on
• 02:00 - 02:30 YouTube for a long time and specifically in reference to the video that you're watching now I have been making daily Vlog content on YouTube for over 15 years um I started back in 2009 um I was in college I was a a film student and specifically I was an editor and I wanted extra footage to edit so I started shooting a a vlog so I'd have
• 02:30 - 03:00 some some stuff to work with and uh you know very quickly it became more than that it it was a a way to um hold on to Memories it was a way to express myself creatively um and I also just found that I genuinely enjoyed documenting life there was
• 03:00 - 03:30 something that really tickled me about capturing moments and when I started carrying a camera with me everywhere and you know telling myself I was going to film every day I managed to start capturing some moments that you know I probably wouldn't have otherwise you also have to remember that when the Vlog began back in 2009 this was an era before cell phone video was really a thing it existed it just existed as
• 03:30 - 04:00 like tiny and bad so carrying a camera with you was a novelty um in the first year of vlogging I had really discovered how much I enjoyed it and it became a serious passion of mine and it it honestly stayed a passion project from the beginning up until today because the Vlog has never really made a whole lot
• 04:00 - 04:30 of money uh certainly nowhere near what it would take to like sustain any any sort of life and I've done it just because I really really wanted to do it it was something that you know meant something to me so started the Vlog 2009 did it throughout college and then in 2011 I exited college and uh uh I decided that I
• 04:30 - 05:00 really wanted to continue trying to do um you know content creation and pursue that as a career path and like I said before the Vlog wasn't really a viable solution for that but I had started a different YouTube channel called Steven Plays which was about video game content it was back in the Heyday of Let's Plays and um I have always l LED video games
• 05:00 - 05:30 and that's what I decided to focus on and the truth of the matter is Steven Plays was a full-time job um I really went gung-ho on the whole YouTube thing um for like for most of the 2010s I was working like 60 to 80 plus hour weeks um and that was just because
• 05:30 - 06:00 we were putting out a ridiculous amount of content over on Steven Plays like often close to 20 videos every single week which is just ridiculous and um you know on top of that I was also doing the Vlog and I just I enjoyed doing it the Vlog was a lot of fun for me it it was a it was it was fun to do it was a nice you know reprieve from
• 06:00 - 06:30 video game content too because even though I enjoyed that shooting stuff IRL is completely different it's a different form of expression and creativity so you know I I really loved it but it it kind of became apparent to me as the years went on that I had kind of signed up for a NeverEnding project because with Steven Plays you could work ahead you know we Ma and I my
• 06:30 - 07:00 wife would sit down and and play through a game and we might record like multiple episodes in a in a sitting and I could start to schedule those out the you can't do that with real life so the Vlog could never really truly be caught up because even if I had edited yesterday's video and I had that done when I woke up the next day I was behind again there there was going to be more to do
• 07:00 - 07:30 and the other difficult part is that there are no days off what I mean by that is that sure you can you can edit when you want to essentially you know if if you want to take a day off from editing you you can but you have to film every day so in that respect there is there is no real days off you have have to always be
• 07:30 - 08:00 filming things and be thinking about filming things and that that be that will become a problem uh later in our story um it was something that didn't seem like a huge deal in the first few years and eventually became a bigger deal but uh you know this something I had always kind of thought about I was like huh yeah you know there's no days off but it's fine cuz I enjoy this and I I love filming things I love documenting life
• 08:00 - 08:30 it's fine um the other thing was that vacations were always really really difficult because you know I was already doing the the YouTube Lifestyle so if I was getting ready to go on a vacation we're going to be gone for a week then I have to work ahead on all the video game stuff to get even more scheduled cuz there's no such thing as like taking time off at least not not for me so would I would work ahead get
• 08:30 - 09:00 all that stuff done and then go on this vacation and while I'm on the vacation I'm filming more for the Vlog than I would normally because it's interesting and fun and I'm also documenting my own life and you know creating these personal keepsakes for me but when I get back home the reality of that situation is now I have extremely complicated Vlogs to make and in addition I I'm back to normal life where
• 09:00 - 09:30 I also need to shoot and edit Vlogs and as a result of this um Vlogs were were often behind uh this is this is a common thing I mean people that have watched the channel for any length of time have have probably experienced this in some way or another usually in in a fairly great way um keeping up with Vlogs is just in inherently difficult because it's not my only job there's so many other things
• 09:30 - 10:00 going on that I'm I'm working on and juggling and doing but then as soon as we go like on a trip or something everything is thrown for just a major Loop because there's suddenly all this other work to do and over the years I've had people tell me you know Stephen why don't you have an editor do vlogs and it's just because they're personal it it's the sort of thing that I just never wanted anyone else to to touch because
• 10:00 - 10:30 it it's a personal thing for me like I shot it and I want to be the one to edit it and tell that story so it wasn't it wasn't something I ever really seriously considered because like it's just not what I wanted to do and as a result I was behind a lot and one thing that I learned like pretty early on but it definitely got more difficult as time went on and I was you know juggling so many things is that being behind kills
• 10:30 - 11:00 creativity and what I mean by that specifically is that if you get you know pretty far behind on something and you're supposed to continue to create like new things you start to get real focused on catching up and it's very difficult to feel inspired and Innovative and creative
• 11:00 - 11:30 on new things when you are still so focused on like catching up because to you know to have that creativity it takes time it takes time to think of things it takes time to play around with stuff and post like that stuff takes real time and if you start to do some of that very quickly your brain falls into this this other uh you know thought process of like okay but you're folling
• 11:30 - 12:00 further behind so that sucked uh and you know that's something I've talked about over the years too is like some of the some of the best Vlogs it's not always the case but some of the best Vlogs are when things are caught up because you get like some weird stuff or I was trying you know strange things um and they're very memorable and a lot of those are because I could focus on that I had the time and effort and energy
• 12:00 - 12:30 to devote to just that and I didn't have to think about oh there's like all this other stuff happening so hopefully by now I've I've begun to paint a bit of a picture about how we started the trajectory towards this um and the thing is it's never that I disliked this I've always loved this and I think that's one of the most difficult Parts is you love something but you also real realize that
• 12:30 - 13:00 it's like hurting you you know like it's causing you problems but you're like ah but I love it it's that's a pretty difficult uh thing to try and manage in your head and every year uh generally it would happen when the Vlog turned over another year which the vlog's anniversary is in November so basically like every November um I would reflect on the fact I had
• 13:00 - 13:30 finished another another Vlog year and I got to tell you probably around the time the Vlog turned 10 after that every November every time it it you know became a little bit older there was this this feeling in my in my gut of like will the Vlog end at some point will it like is this something I I
• 13:30 - 14:00 can do forever because there's a part of you that kind of knows what it's doing you know there's there's a part there was a part of me that that understood like this this causes you a lot of problems and even though you love it like it's it's causing you a lot of problems but the thing was I never really allowed myself to truly question it in the sense that with each passing year I would think about like can I do
• 14:00 - 14:30 this forever but then I would tell myself well I can't you can't stop like I I can't I'm not allowed to stop like I I have to keep doing it I never gave myself permission to even really entertain the idea and like you know the Vlog hits year 11 year 12 you're 13 and like as it's doing that every year that voice is getting a little bit louder
• 14:30 - 15:00 but each time I'm still like okay but I couldn't actually end the Vlog and the thing that's so ridiculous is like yeah I could I I could like there have been many things in my creative career that have felt that way and they changed because yeah for a long time we were doing a stupid amount of videos over on Steven Plays and I I told myself you
• 15:00 - 15:30 know I had I had people in my life that're like Stephen this is like killing you and I was like yeah well we couldn't actually do less but we could and we did and it it was okay and that that's like a recurring theme like I can think of multiple things throughout you know some of the YouTube stuff that we've done where I've like well we can't stop doing me like uh morning Mario and Chaz is like we could so this has been a recurring thing and
• 15:30 - 16:00 it's really no surprise that you know this thing that I've been doing for so long and truly truly love I wasn't allowed to like question it you know uh but then we got to 2024 and to be perfectly honest with you um 2024 was a hard year like there was a lot of different stressors in 2024 um throughout the year
• 16:00 - 16:30 uh a lot of like IRL stuff stuff that you would notice like on screen but then also offscreen uh Kepler our our cat got uh very very sick and is still sick and that has been kind of a constant thing um we changed a bunch of stuff with work um in like a big way like Steven Vlog obviously but even before this you know uh Steven plays had to make some changes
• 16:30 - 17:00 like it was it was required of us to like really alter some stuff on the channel in a way that we didn't necessarily want to but had to to you know make it sustainable and so there's been all of these different stress factors and and hardships in in 2024 and that combined with the fact that uh I've been behind in 2024 because uh we had went to Japan and I had set
• 17:00 - 17:30 those Vlogs aside which I still feel like was probably the right call but it has added on to my stress because it's another albatross in my life um you know that's that's adding stress I just in general everything that kind of combined in 2024 really did make me feel creatively bankrupt and the thing about it is it's not that it's everything I made you know know I felt like our
• 17:30 - 18:00 streams have been really really great and I I have a lot of energy and passion that I can put into that but when it came to Vlogs there was a there was a lot of times where I was just I was feeling what I now know is like the beginning of burnout and sometimes the you know the Vlogs would still be like fantastic we made some really good stuff last year but there was also times where like I could feel it so heavy on my
• 18:00 - 18:30 chest and I kept doing it because like you can't stop like you have to keep going and it's just this very it became this very strange LoveHate relationship because again I adore this I love I love creating and shooting and I love documenting life I like creating Slice of Life content but you know after all of this time it was it was starting to I I think very negatively affect me
• 18:30 - 19:00 and um I I've had uh patreon for a long time and I do a monthly patreon video where I I talk to patrons and it's kind of like a little behind the scenes thing um there's usually not really any exclusive information there it's just kind of like early information uh but I use it to kind of gauge what they think of you know certain things we'll talk about what's coming up for video game stuff or what
• 19:00 - 19:30 we're going to be doing next month in real life so it'll be on the blog and uh in in November after the Vlog hit you know 15 years old that was that was like the the the heaviest I had ever felt all of this feeling regarding all of this and I told Ma I was like this is um this is this is I really feel this
• 19:30 - 20:00 and Ma has has told me this before she said if you discuss something it's already bad she said you're the type of person that tends to try and handle things on your own and work on it in your own time mentally and try to you know work through things she's like so by the time you say something it's already bad and I was
• 20:00 - 20:30 like yeah she said why don't you you know bring it up in the patreon video for December so at the beginning of uh of December um I released the patreon video I was open and honest and transparent about this for really the first time ever because I never want to give the impression that like I don't want to do the Vlog because I do want to do the Vlog and I don't want to send like those
• 20:30 - 21:00 mixed messages but I also wanted to be honest about the kind of difficulties and hardships I've had with it so I took that to the patreon video and the responses I got were just incredible um people were so kind and understanding and supportive and just had ideas and were like hey you know like it's okay you could you could move to a weekly format
• 21:00 - 21:30 or a monthly format like you could take a break you have all of these things that you could do and it would be okay there were a few people that were like hey it's just you know I understand that someday the Vlog will end and those responses on patreon gave me the strength for like the first time in my life to question the continuation of of the daily
• 21:30 - 22:00 Vlog and that's wild because like every year you know I've always told myself well you can't actually end it and suddenly you know I'm a week or so into December last month and my brain has like had a a a switch flipped so then I start like exploring it I'm like wait a minute what what would this look like you know like if
• 22:00 - 22:30 I um if if I were to to stop doing daily Vlogs what what how would it how would it change things like what would my life look like and what could I create because I started thinking about the the positive effects of it I was like okay so hold on if I if I sto doing daily Vlogs I could have more time for other projects things that I've had on the back burner forever it also means that
• 22:30 - 23:00 the Vlogs when they came out would be inherently better because I would be able to spend more time on them because I'm not worrying about a backlog it's like I made this video and this Fe this feeling of making a video with intention instead of making a video because I have to allowing myself to consider that for the first time I I mean it just it basically changed everything and I decided that
• 23:00 - 23:30 what I would do is I would approach January with the mindset that I was going to take a break was going to take a break and I would do vlogs when I wanted to and not every day because I had to so I told patrons all that at the beginning of
• 23:30 - 24:00 January and they were supportive of of that idea however it's now been you know two weeks or so we're in the middle of January and I've had time to live with this decision uh I have been able to feel what it's like to um not create Vlogs it's not that I'm not
• 24:00 - 24:30 creating anything I'm still doing streams I'm still getting a chance to express creativity in that way but the Vlog content I haven't made and I know some of you are just immediately curious like what does it feel like what what was the sensation and that's the thing that is wildest of all on January 1st I had this sensation of you know there was something happening and I was like oh I should I should be filming this and I told myself
• 24:30 - 25:00 I no don't if you are if you're serious about this if you're serious about trying to take a break if you're serious about realizing how difficult this has been and how you've been under this grind for 15 years and you really want to take a break then you need to not film this and I I told myself okay and then I never felt that again it's it's been it's been over two weeks
• 25:00 - 25:30 now um I don't miss it and I hate that for the longest time I would not give myself permission to even consider ending the Vlog because it's just not something I could do and here I am once I have done it I haven't thought about it at all I do not miss it at all and
• 25:30 - 26:00 I have had some discussions with some friends who you know because I've been feeling like a very specific way it's almost this feeling of like numbness or or or being comos and I'm getting work done but when I think about doing like this when I think about doing like an IRA like Vlog there's no desire there at all and after having some conversations with folks they were like Stephen and you're just you're describing
• 26:00 - 26:30 burnout this is burnout they said you've probably been burnout for a long long long time because I had people for my entire career being like man it's I'm always so impressed with what you do and like how do you not burn out and I was just always like I don't know and for the longest time I was like I guess I can't oh no so looking back I think that I've actually been experiencing burnout or the early stages burnout for
• 26:30 - 27:00 years like for a long long time and the way that I've handled that is I've said oh not right now I'm busy so I've had all of these these things going on in my life that have been contributing to to making things very difficult and I have just not taken any of the time to process it because I've been so focused on work working and what I'm learning now is
• 27:00 - 27:30 that yeah you can put that off or try but it's it's it's you're going to deal with it eventually I still had to try and relieve pressure over the years like in the last few years especially I've I've tried to do little things here and there to like make my workload less because I was starting to feel real pressure from it so I would I would give up a project here or take a step back on on a thing or um you know give some work to someone else for them to handle so
• 27:30 - 28:00 I've been doing all these little things but the thing I needed to do the most was was change the Vlog like stop doing the Vlog or change the Vlog in a major way because that has been such a constant source of difficulty and I just haven't allowed myself to do it until now so in the past you know two odd weeks I have been experiencing this just wild Rush of like all of the
• 28:00 - 28:30 burnout that I put off for years like all coming back to me at once this feeling is so strong and it feels like an illness honestly it's very hard to put into words and I don't know that I can fully describe it but um yeah if this is burnout if this is true blue burnout it's a awful and I am experiencing it in
• 28:30 - 29:00 a I guess a very high dosage um and that sucks so I I say all that to say this my original plan of like January will be a break going to take a break that'll be that'll be what we need and then we'll figure that later no this format change to no longer doing daily Vlogs and just shooting video when I want is it's permanent it
• 29:00 - 29:30 is a permanent change um because with how I'm feeling now I know that it's going to take me a long time to recover and that doesn't mean that I don't plan on on making videos I'm sure I will but I have a feeling that at the beginning it's going to be kind of slow starting out because I have to I have to heal from this and that I know that that sounds ridiculous it's something that if you would have told me in December I would have been like that
• 29:30 - 30:00 that doesn't make is that is that real is that make no it's real that's that's that is the best way I can describe it I feel like I have to heal from this but I think I will because this is this is in me this is something that I've always made I was making videos long before YouTube existed I've always enjoyed doing it and I want to continue enjoying it but I have to take some time to like get that passion back the thing
• 30:00 - 30:30 that ultimately did me in was this this constant daily boom boom boom and removing that element allowing me to shoot things when I want I think will allow me to finally heal and bring back some of that creativity and I'm so excited at the prospect of that and the other thing that I've I've told myself during this time is that like I don't have anything to prove I did this for 15 years as far as
• 30:30 - 31:00 I know I'm the the longest record holder of doing a daily Vlog and like I don't care I just don't care I've never cared about that and it's like if you don't care about that and this project was started by you as something you enjoy it should continue to be something you enjoy and you need to make changes so you can enjoy it so I'm I'm making changes for that so my plan
• 31:00 - 31:30 going forward for the foreseeable future is to make videos when I feel like it on things that I want to make videos of and I know that that brings up all sorts of questions because people would be like well are you going to film this and are you going to film this don't ask me any questions because I cannot answer them right now I I know the type of stuff I like to make and that is Slice of Life Life stuff I think in time I'll get to a point where I come up with a you know a
• 31:30 - 32:00 format that works for me that works for all of you and we can all be happy with but in the interim I don't know I don't know I'm going to try and focus on myself uh focus on other things that I've wanted to to work on other projects I've got other other ideas for things I've wanted to do um and and do all of that while I heal and things get better and I can slowly start to get back to creating
• 32:00 - 32:30 stuff that I I I want to make and in the interim I do still have some videos to work on and that is Japan so I when I'm not making a new Vlog I plan to work on the the last missing links from all of this and uh hopefully you'll be getting some Japan stuff pretty soon as a result um for now though what I want you to to leave this video with is is not sadness
• 32:30 - 33:00 and I know it would be easy to be sad because for many of you watching like the Vlog has been an an an institution in your household maybe uh we've had people that have been watching for 10 12 14 I mean some of some people have been watching the entire the entire 15 years and even those that haven't went back and watched everything there's been quite a few people that have taken the journey and have watched all of the stuff so I know
• 33:00 - 33:30 that this channel is it may not be the biggest it may not have the most views but like for some people this this channel means a lot and I want you to know that it means a lot to me too I don't come to this decision L but I do think it's time for this and I'm excited about the future because I think that it will increase the value of everything that I make from
• 33:30 - 34:00 here on out it's going to take me a little time because I need to I kind of need to get better but looking into the future to remove the stress that has loomed over me forever and give me the mental freedom to create I think it's a good move I think it's a really good move and I will do my best to continue creating a lot of this the the same stuff that I've made in the past but probably at a much
• 34:00 - 34:30 different pace okay that was long I knew it would be thank you for sticking around it's it's always weird whenever you see creators making these videos about like you know I've done this for a long time and I'm I'm either stopping or I'm changing things and uh for the longest time I wouldn't have ever allowed myself to even consider the possibility of making something like this and in a very short amount of time like in in a in
• 34:30 - 35:00 like a two-month period I've allowed myself to to think that and I'm I'm here and I'm ready to to start Steven Vlog 2 finally we got a sequel finally step Vlog 2 all right I'm done let's meet back soon shall we