Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/908098
"1. Exercise—It will lower the toll on your body & has psychological benefits. 2. Hydration—So important & often overlooked. A lack of hydration will cause fatigue and more symptoms that could lead to health problems. By the time you feel thirsty, you're already dehydrated. 3. Keep learning & pace yourself. 4. Recognize your own signs of burning out: One thoughtless action could ruin weeks of relationship building. 5. Try not to be competitive, but rather, collaborative. The film industry is always expanding. 6. Make personal plans—Even if they have to change a lot; life moves quickly and you don't want to realize it's too late for certain things. 7. Be someone others at work look forward to seeing. 8. DON'T overbook yourself. You need "Me" time. 9. Get enough sleep. 10. Choose how you see your job/department on the set; don't let others make that judgment call." –Patrushkha Mierzwa, Boom Operator, Patrick Martens, Boom Operator, & Mark Ulano, Sound Mixer "Part of my routine in keeping myself sane and healthy is trying my best to not bring work home with me. Every day is filled with challenges and often annoyances and I think it's important to check those at the stage door. Home life becomes just that—home life and nothing intrudes on it or its routines. I find the people I'll be working with and for to be an extremely important factor on choosing jobs. It makes all the difference when the people you work for are good to you. You pay it right back at them. When you are genuinely happy and have a good attitude, it is way less likely that those who work around you who may have a bad attitude to be able to affect you. "I feel like if we worked fewer hours per day (max twelve on twelve off—but ideally, ten hours call to wrap), we would all be much happier. If I could have dinner at home or out any night of the week I wanted yet still work a full day, I would be even happier. And mind you, it's not nec- essarily about the dinner … It's about the time. If we feel like we have to drive home and rush to bed in order to get adequate sleep before the next shooting day, we end up feeling cheated out of our free time." –Devendra Cleary, Sound Mixer "Having a family has really made me value every minute I have. We definitely max out our weekends, and while it doesn't make for a ton of rest, at least I have great memo- ries and a feeling of accomplishment come Monday. Ear- lier this year, I took four months off and managed my daughter's fast-pitch softball team and participated in their school events for the first time ever. My husband and I agree, taking care of the kids is much harder than our day jobs (he's a grip) ... So after a stint with the kids, we are actually ready to go back to work. We also always take time off for those precious moments you can't get back, like trick or treating. It's important to work with people who also value family or personal time, because it really helps minimize burnout. Taking a day off once in a while isn't going to stop the show, and it can benefit a fellow 695 member who really needs hours. Win-win! "One thing I now take more seriously is my health. I no longer put work before annual physicals or illness. Our yearly physical is one of the best benefits of our health insurance, so use them! And if I'm sick, I stay home. Last thing I want to do is make my fellow crewmembers ill. No one is going to think you're a hero when you're coughing all over set. "I love hour walk always. I get outside, walk or ride my bike and rack up some vitamin D. I'll take care of small errands like washing the car or hitting the Rite Aid. Five lunch hours correlate to a big chunk of my weekend, so if I don't have to spend it buying shampoo, I'm thrilled. Drinking enough water is always a challenge for all of us, but staying hydrated does wonders for your energy level. Joe Foglia and I remind each other to hit the bottle all day long. "I absolutely take into account the people I'll be work- ing with, the type of project, the commute and the sea- son length. Hour-long episodic can be a grind, so unless you're working with people you enjoy, it won't work. We spend more time with our work families than our real families. If we can't have a good laugh once in a while, it'll be a very long season." –Anna Wilborn, Sound Utility "I'm fortunate to have relatively little stress in work and life. However, I'm certainly not stress-free. When the stress arrives, the best thing for me, if possible, is to remove myself physically from the situation that is causing it. That can be relatively easy in everyday life but can sometimes be hard to do on set. Usually, I can find a nice quiet corner somewhere to unwind. The timing is the tricky part. Outside of the workplace, playing the drums or guitar has always been a wonderful activity to help me get away from it all and clear my head. However, my absolute favorite all-around tension-relieving, mental- cleansing activity is going for a strenuous run at the beach. It never fails to return me to a tranquil state of mind." –Mark Agostino, Music Playback & Live Recording Mixer