Some days, you wake up ready to train like a trans voice athlete. Other days? Just existing is enough of a challenge. If you're exhausted, burnt out, or just don’t have the motivation to practice, you’re not alone. The good news? You don’t have to train like a voice athlete every day to make progress. Even the smallest, lowest-effort practice can help you stay consistent and keep your voice evolving.

In this guide, I’m sharing burnout-friendly voice training strategies that work even when you have zero energy. And if you’d rather watch than read, here’s the full video where I walk you through everything:

Since my blog doesn’t have comments, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the YouTube video! If you find this post helpful, let me know by commenting there—that’s the best place to connect and share your experiences.

The Bare Minimum Method™

I've broken up these 10-ish strategies into sections, with this first one being the Bare Minimum Method. Let’s say you feel tired, drained, you are one with the couch—but you still want to do something small for your voice. You want to get your little checkmark on Habitica and get that sweet, sweet loot. Maybe that’s just me!

1. Gentle Stretching

Your voice and body are connected, so even a little movement helps to make things feel more flexible and easy. Try a gentle neck stretch or some shoulder rolls. This has the bonus of being just a great thing to do for your body in general. And if you want guidance, my follow-along warm-up freebie has you covered.

2. Straw Phonation While Lying Down

If you want to do the tiniest voice warm-up, you can! And you don’t even have to be upright. Do this for 30 seconds and get that checkmark. If you want some guidance, I recently put out a straw phonation video that you can check out.

3. Say One Word in Your Target Voice

That’s it. One word. It could be hello, potato, or why. Because truly, why? And if you don’t know what your target voice is yet, I also made a video on that.

Practicing Without Practicing

The next section is Practicing Without Practicing. Maybe you don’t have a lot of energy and ALSO you don’t want to practice. Maybe you don’t want to be told what to do!! I can relate! But you can still work on your voice without it feeling like work.

4. Listen to Voices That Inspire You

Podcasts, YouTube videos, TV shows—just listen. No pressure to mimic, just let your brain absorb patterns.

5. Sing Along to Music

You don’t have to be a great singer—just play with your voice as you imitate the singer and have fun with it.

6. Talk to a Pet, Plant, or Inanimate Object

Your houseplant would love to hear about your day in your target voice. No judgment here.

7. Narrate Your Actions Out Loud

Try: "And now, I dramatically pour my coffee…" or "Behold, I have located my phone." Silly? Yes. Effective? Also yes.

8. Repeat Lines from TV Shows

You’re watching TV anyway, right? Hear a fun line? Repeat it while imitating their voice. Low effort, high impact.

Motivation Boosters (ADHD-Friendly Hacks)

The last section is Motivation Boosters, and this one is specifically for my ADHD girlies out there. Maybe your energy isn’t the issue—maybe it’s motivation. You want to practice, but your brain is not cooperating. If that’s the case, try these:

9. Body Doubling

Turn on a study-with-me video, call a friend, or practice in a coffee shop. Being around other people (even virtually) makes it way easier to start.

10. The Five-Minute Timer Trick

Set a timer for five minutes. Tell yourself you can stop after that. Honestly, five minutes is kinda long—start with just one minute if you need to!

11. The Practice Menu

Make a list of practice options well in advance of practicing and put it somewhere you can see it. That way, when you sit down to practice, you don’t have to decide—you just pick something and go.

Perfectionism Reminder

Now, very quickly—let’s talk about perfectionism.

If you feel guilty about not practicing enough or not doing it right, I want you to hear this: there’s no such thing as perfect in voice training.

Your voice is an ever-evolving instrument. It changes with your body’s energy, your mood, how much sleep you got, and over time as you age. If you’re waiting for the perfect day to practice—or aiming for the perfect voice—you’ll be waiting forever. So instead of aiming for perfect, aim for something. Even if it’s small.

Permission to Rest

And if none of these practice ideas feel possible today?

Then today is a rest day. And that’s not a failure—it’s part of the process.

Your voice progress isn’t going to disappear just because you took a break. It’s not a high-maintenance houseplant. In fact, rest is necessary for your brain to form new connections. If you feel like you've reached a plateau, try resting.

And also, rest means actually resting.

If you haven't practiced for two weeks but spent every day feeling guilty for not practicing, that is not rest. Take a real break and come back refreshed and ready to dive in. The work will still be here, and you'll be more prepared to tackle it.

What’s Next? Comment on the Video!

Since this blog doesn’t have comments, I’d love to hear from you on the YouTube video!

➡️ Which of these low-energy voice training strategies are you going to try? Comment on the video and let me know!

And if you have your own burnout-friendly practice tricks, share them with the community in the comments—we’re all in this together.

More Resources to Help You Train Your Voice

📩 Sign up for my newsletter for voice training tips, resources, and (probably a little bit of fun chaos) straight to your inbox.

📹 Watch my straw phonation video for an easy, low-effort way to train your voice.

📹 Watch my target voice video if you’re still figuring out the sound you want.

That’s all for today and I hope this helps.

Renée 🦋