This originally appeared in Issue 038 of UX Writing Events.
Content work can be really hard. Sometimes content people make it even harder on themselves. I do, anyway. I’ve gotten better over the years about not getting worked up about it because, as our friend Jane posted in response to what I’m about to share: It’s just fucking computers.
In case you need it and/or missed it on LinkedIn last week, the following is an invitation to take it easy on yourself.
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A lot of content folks make themselves miserable because the content isn’t PERFECT and those MEAN OLD STAKEHOLDERS just don’t GET IT. ARGH!
So hey. Let’s breathe. Unless you are working on content that is getting carved into a monument or put on a plaque being sent into space for future civilizations to find, you have my permission to relax.
You don’t have to perfectly manage and centralize every single string in your content universe. You don’t have to run every piece of content through the optimal traveling-salesman-problem production path. No one is going to die if some sentence case slips onto your CTA buttons.
It’s just words on websites. These words on these websites are going to change, the websites are going to change, the companies that run the websites are going to change, morph, sell, die.
It’s not eternal. If you don’t operate like it is, this work gets a lot less stressful, and can even, occasionally, be fun.