"Take a Walk on the Wild Side"

 If you're a busy voice over talent, you may have those days that can be overwhelming with client expectations about your turnaround time/tight deadlines and everything seemingly coming at you all at once. I record a good amount of learning content. Some of it is very technical. Aviation scripts comes to mind. I think it's super important to force yourself to take a break and reboot. Do something that centers you again. In my case, I like to go out and walk a bit through my neighborhood. Lately, here in the Bay Area, we've had some outstanding weather; mid 70's and a slightly cool breeze. The streets are such that I can take a short walk, or much longer one, depending upon how much time I have. I say hello from afar to a big, bad, barking dog that's fenced in and looks very intimidating. I absolutely love walking as you notice things you would never see while driving. Sometimes you find a few coins in the dirt. And unfortunately, sometimes you see litter. Time to bring back that 60's TV campaign, "Don't be a Litterbug." There's a mom and pop convenience store just across the way I can get to in about 8 minutes from my front door. I'll go over there and grab a snack and buy a few lottery tickets. They have those "pickle in a pouch" things which I like a lot. (Van Holten's). I've enjoyed those since I was a kid. I'm also addicted to homemade pickles... but that's another story. There's a hofbrau in San Francisco called Tommy's Joynt with a big barrel of all you can eat pickles! I'm dying to try that out. (I know! I know! It's the little things in life). Anyway, I head back to my home studio, enjoy the snacks, and get back to recording or editing the audio. It's not an overly long break, but just enough to reset. When I walk, I always try to take some deep breaths along the way and move briskly. Of course, if walking's not your thing, there are so many other options. Some like to close their eyes and meditate or listen to music with headphones on. Hey, whatever works for you. 

Over the years, I've gotten many compliments about my fast turnaround of the voice overs. That's totally cool. But you really should take those much needed breaks. Resetting is, in my opinion, a very wise thing to do. And you might even save yourself an aspirin or two at the end of the day!