Hi — I'm Masato, twice through burnout and out the other side.
It's an old pattern of mine: a sudden hollow feeling of "wait, what am I supposed to be doing?" Not sadness, not depression — just a recurring loss of grip on my goals and whatever I'm working toward.
Yesterday I redesigned the company site to feature my own face; before that, client work. So — today? Thinking yields no answer. Left alone that curdles into anxiety, so I run the routine that reorganizes my thinking and recovers the goal.
Having gone through burnout twice, alone, and resolved it both times, here's my way of living through it. Solo freelancers with no colleagues are everywhere — if this reaches even one who's struggling the way I have, writing it was worth it. (I decided to write exactly what I'm feeling as I feel it.)
If "I don't know what to do today" sounds familiar, read on.
1. Think about what you love — what feels good
This comes first, always.
Skip it and an unnameable anxiety and impatience quietly demolish your mental state. I ask: lately, what am I doing when I'm enjoying myself? What am I looking at when I feel happy?
——— (thinking) ———
Here's my actual list, verbatim:
- Achievement at work — landing a big project (work is fun, after everything)
- Time with friends, drinks
- Sitting on the neighborhood café terrace, thinking, looking at grass and trees
- Walking past the beautiful pool near home
- Watching my wife struggle at some weird video game (she's hilariously bad)
- Newsletter subscribers ticking up (each notification is a little joy)
- Live recordings of my favorite band
- Writing — pouring myself out (I used to hate writing; now I love it, apparently)
- Wearing clothes I think are cool (I made and bought clothes in university; nomad life reduced me to Uniqlo; renting a place in Thailand brought it back. I do love clothes.)
Embarrassingly candid — but that's how I locate what I love and what makes me happy.
When something registers as enjoyable, my head clears and thinking sharpens. In that state, focus, ideas, and drive all rise, and work accelerates — which is exactly why this step comes first.
2. Recall the goal
Next, recall the goal. Mine used to be vague — "what am I even working FOR?" — and this step used to hurt, so I built proper goals:
- Build a team around the web production business
- Find just ten true fans
Building the team
I run a Webflow production business; I find teammates, then I move to the next venture. That requires publishing — articles via Webflow × SEO, video, social reach.
Right now I have exactly two trusted partners. No employees yet, income not yet stable. Which means plenty left to do — and the road itself excites me.
Ten fans
One day it struck me: being cheered on by someone is a genuinely beautiful thing. Become someone worth cheering for; stay worthy of it. That's one of my goals now.
Don't do what I find uncool. Do what I find cool even if someone else calls it uncool. Count only the people who love you — one is enough for happiness. Be a person of consistent principle. That's why this goal exists.
But I don't want to be an influencer — I don't even much like social media. I've learned I prefer narrow-and-deep, small teams. So instead of one-to-many social feeds, I'm investing in the letter-from-me-to-you format: newsletters and community.
3. Work backward from the goal — and if the mood won't rise, rest today
From the goal, derive the task list. And if even then the mood won't lift: rest. A task list without the mood behind it goes undone anyway.
I say this as someone who has forced it before: push without the mood and the mood stays gone, the heat drains, and burnout returns. So I rest properly.
—— 3 days later ——
Focus broke, so I took three days off. Played Zelda with my wife all weekend. Gamed so much I started wanting to work — so here I am, continuing the article.
Working backward: making the business a system
Two big tasks:
- Grow the project pipeline
- Find team members
The path to a systematized business, roughly:
- Grow projects
- Find (and grow) members
- Become the director myself
- Find a director among the members
- Focus on sales while the director runs most production
- With trusted people in key seats, open a new business
Very rough, but that's the ladder I'm climbing.
Currently around step 2, with far to go. Members I find often lack the quality or skill yet — so lately I pay to commission them, fix the work myself, and teach through feedback on why I fixed it. An itchy arrangement, but it's what works for now.
When I was starting out, I got cut without a word of explanation — which is exactly why I can't help wanting to teach.
