MrBeast's Burnout Routine is Actually Optimal For Peak Performance
It's counterintuitive and it works.
MrBeast is the world’s biggest YouTuber.
Currently, he’s facing allegations from every edge of the internet. But, this post has nothing to do with MrBeast’s legal troubles.
Instead, it has everything to do with how MrBeast got to where he is today. And, how I’ve adopted his peculiar burnout routine to:
Write better
Get more done
And, most importantly, create content across multiple platforms without burning out…
MrBeast’s peculiar routine.
If you’ve never heard of MrBeast, he’s a 26-year-old YouTuber with 200+ million subscribers. And, multiple businesses including:
Feastables — healthy snacks
MrBeast Burgers — the “Uber” of fast food
Beast Philanthropy — a non-profit charity
His YouTube channels alone pull in an estimated $50+ million per year, rivalling Elon Musk’s and Steve Jobs' business accolades at his age.
Suffice it to say, MrBeast gets a lot done.
And, on an episode of the “My First Million” podcast, he shared his very simple work routine:
“I don’t work, like, certain days. I just go as hard as I can with every ounce of my entire body until I just crash. And somehow that’s sustainable for me.”
On the surface, this seems like a recipe for disaster.
Willingly throwing yourself into the depths of burnout is far from sustainable. But, after trying it for myself, I can safely say it is — not to mention a powerful mindfulness practice.
Here’s how MrBeast’s billion-dollar burnout routine… actually prevents burnout.
Why it works.
Hard work is MrBeast’s entire business model.
As a college dropout with no prior business experience, it’s amazing how far MrBeast has come. In just over 10 years, he’s built one of the biggest social media empires… well, ever.
And, if you’ve ever heard him interviewed, he brims with quiet confidence. When asked what makes him so confident about the future, his answer is always the same,
“I just believe in it. If we’re filming 10 times longer, were spending 30 times longer brainstorming ideas, we’re re-investing every dollar, and were just outworking everyone… it’s foolproof.”
Confidence is bred through hard work.
But, the truth is, there is a limit to how far the human brain can bend.
Even the brightest star will eventually burn out.
So, the key is not to simply work hard. But, understand where your breaking point lies. And, work within it.
MrBeast’s billion-dollar routine.
A few years ago, MrBeast was offered the deal of a lifetime — $1 billion for everything he’s built. But, he turned it down, saying:
“I don’t really want to work for my own YouTube channel.”
In reality, MrBeast’s brand has surpassed the $1 billion mark. And, according to financial experts, he made the right call. The first phase of any journey is always the hardest.
And, we often romanticize the origin story of successful entrepreneurs.
Elon Musk sleeping on the floor at Tesla to ramp up production, or Casey Neistat exploding on YouTube after filming 800 consecutive daily vlogs.
Albeit these are effective short-term strategies, they’re not sustainable for long-term success.
But somehow, MrBeast has kept a sprint-like pace for a marathon-length distance, without burning out. 🏃♂️💨
While his counterparts announce they are quitting YouTube or turn to drugs/alcohol to cope, MrBeast trudges along. This, despite having chron’s disease — which affects his energy levels.
So, how does he do it?
On the “My First Million” podcast, he shared:
“The way I like to work is basically wake up, obsess over something, go to bed, wake up, obsess, go to bed. Like every second of the day until I have a mental breakdown and I burn out, and then I take a day off. And then I go right back to it.”
Something about this spoke to me.
Just like there’s a fine line between love and hate, there’s a fine line between addiction and obsession. Many creators become addicted to the fruits of their labour. The likes, fame, money. This causes them to push too far and burn out.
Others, resist feeding their obsession at all — never achieving their goals.
As Steven Pressfield writes in “The War of Art”:
“The degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul.”
You must be obsessed to achieve big goals. But you also have to maintain enough control not to push yourself too far.
It’s within this balance that success, at anything, is found.
MrBeast has become an expert at pushing himself to the breaking point only to take his foot off the gas at the right moment.
His simple routine counter-intuitively, promotes balance…
I’ve been copying MrBeast’s routine for 1 year.
I’ve never been an advocate for hustle culture. And, truthfully, I believe, as a society, we put too much emphasis on money as a whole.
Yet, working hard is perhaps my greatest attribute.
And, until quite recently, it was the only way I knew how to achieve.. well, anything.
I would start off strong, achieve a few goals, push through my dwindling energy, and inevitably burn out. Over time, I learned to schedule my efforts — but, encountered a new challenge. By forcing myself to take time off, I would lose sight of my goals.
And, often, spent just as much energy trying to relax when my brain just didn’t want to.
A true catch-22.
So, last year, I decided to try MrBeast’s routine — diving headfirst into my obsessions without worrying about saving energy. 👨💻💪
For example:
Instead of forcing myself to take the weekends off (only to spend the entire weekend thinking about work), I worked whenever I felt inspired.
And, if an idea popped into my head, I explored it.
If it meant pulling out my phone in the middle of the night, I did.
Here’s what happened.
Amazingly, my need for rest lessened. A few hours of rest felt more restorative than days in the past, as they were completely uninterrupted.
I wasn’t juggling a thousand thoughts at once.
Or forcing myself to rest.
By staying present in each moment, I began ticking items off of my to-do-but-never-done list:
👉 I launched a YouTube channel
👉 I started a Substack newsletter
👉 I created a new writing tool (currently on pre-sale)
All of the things I had been pushing off until I ‘had time’, just sort of happened.
With each step, came more motivation. The key has been not pushing myself to do anything. But instead, to allow myself.
I’m not saving energy for a rainy day. But I’m also not investing it in the past or future. I’m living in the moment, knowing that whenever I need a break, I’ll take one.
And frankly, it’s been freeing to get swept away by obsession instead of holding onto procrastination.
Final thoughts: don’t fight your future self.
Resistance can often be just as draining as the work itself. If you have an idea, pursue it. If you have a question, research it. And if it feels uncomfortable, it’s because you care.
The best time to do anything is right now.
To summarize:
Don’t fight yourself
Embrace your obsessions
You can feel tired from doing too little
Hard work is good for you — but balance is better
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Thank you for permission. Too often, we’re pressured into “relaxing” while the things we’re wanting to do but not doing pile up in our heads. The “rest” we think we’re getting just contributes to feelings of not doing enough, of becoming a failure, of running out of time. This outlook is a new way to think about what it means to “rest.”
This is so interesting—and inspiring! Knowing ourselves well is truly the best way to find where our limit is so we can work effectively within it. Society really has lied to us about there being a 1-size-fits-all method for productive work. Everyone is different and we get to make our own ceilings!