When you’re tired of trying to learn it all
“I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?”
― Arthur Conan Doyle
I’m starting this article on a particular day when I’m feeling very less-than.
As I write this, I have ten tabs open on my browser: Articles from email newsletters, links shared on social media or in Slack, webinars from Meetups I failed to attend. All things that caught my interest and make me think:
If I read/watch/consume this, I’ll get better at my job.
I’ll admit: I’m a bit of an empath. I get easily overwhelmed, and I’ve written extensively about my anxiety. But suddenly I found tears gathering in the corners of my eyes. I clicked away from my browser.
“I’m just tired and super bummed out,” I wrote to friends on Slack. “I just want a break from it all.”
And I’m far from the only person who feels this way.
An industry barrage
The user experience (UX) industry has grown exponentially in the past few years. What used to be an article or two a week about these things like content strategy, UX writing, and design principles has blown-the-hell-up.
Vehicles like Medium, Wordpress, and other blogging platforms have allowed everyone to become an author. As people gather their expertise in blogs, they eventually author books from those thoughts. Those books gather on the bookshelves of UX professionals around the world.
(No, the irony is not lost on me that I’m publishing this on Medium, although even as I write this I think, Does the world need this from me?)
I’m staring at a field of open tabs in my browser. I’m staring at the bookshelf of books started or not read. And overall, I’m feeling behind.
Besides the fact that I feel guilty for not opening and digesting all of this great content, its creation may be problematic for our planet.
“The problem with digital is that it often drives over-consumption, rather than conservation…Digital is the new sugar. Digital is our greatest addiction. We must develop new skills where we manage digital responsibly. We create and send too much of everything. We are overloaded and we are the overloaders. We can do so much better.” — Gerry McGovern, UX professional
I’ll let Mr. McGovern handle the specifics of digital conservation, and if you don’t follow his newsletter, I highly recommend it.
So what do we do with all this information?
You’re familiar with how it feels.
Sitting under the weight of bookmarked articles to read later, newsletters you need to open, and articles you may even want to write. Hearing podcasts with incredible points of view and approaches to the same work you do. “Why didn’t I think of that,” you think to yourself.
I don’t have a perfect solution, but I’m here to tell you (and myself): No one is expecting you to know it all. Or read it all. Or write it all.
So how do you handle the crushing feeling of falling behind?
Trial-run newsletters and subscriptions
Over the decade in the UX world, I’ve found what blogs, newsletters, and webinars I like to pay attention to the most. While I still happily subscribe to newsletters recommended by colleagues, I give everything a “trial run” to see how I feel about the content.
At some point, I start to whittle them down. While they all have tremendous value in some respect, I’ve been trying to keep my favorites to between 6–10.
Anything that has been left unopened in my inbox, or unshared, or unbookmarked is unsubscribed, retired, and pushed aside.
If you’re not ready to call it quits with some of your favorite brands, consider moving the emails to their own folder, out of sight and out of mind. Better yet, see if your newsletter provider has a way to adjust your subscription settings, so you only get round-ups weekly rather than daily, for example.
Add books to your bookshelf, and read them at your leisure
Now that I’m done with my professional student life, it’s hard for me to sit down and read educational materials cover-to-cover. I enjoy reading so much (fiction, memoirs) that reading about content strategy after practicing content strategy all week is really not my jam.
But, I still keep those books on my bookshelf, and I will pick them up, read through them, jot down some notes, and put them back on the shelf so read again later.
Staring at my bookshelf, even as I write this, can be a bit daunting. I see the names of people and colleagues in my industry that I could only ever dream to emulate. But you know, that’s OK. On the other side, I’m grateful to be familiar with these incredible individuals.
So don’t worry about reading an industry book from start to finish. Chip away at it at your own pace. Jot down what you learn. Highlight (another plus of physical books vs. digital ones) and return to those learnings later for practice.
Build a better bookmark list
This is a work in progress for me, but I’m quite tickled with how far I’ve come and how much this tip has helped me feel more in control of the amount of content I come across and want to read.
For me, I have built a bookmark list in Airtable because I love its ease of use for adding tags and labels to make sorting a breeze. But realistically, you could use the program to keep a bookmark list.
The great thing about keeping track of bookmarks this way is you can provide more context. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve flagged an article I’ve read, only to return later and not remember what about it was so valuable.
By adding tags like category or topic and resource type — along with some helpful descriptions — I can quickly jog through my bookmark list when I need to access something in a pinch. This works for everything, from tools and apps to articles and webinars.
Write at your own pace (and in your own space)
One thing I’ve struggled with is feeling like what I have to say — in written form — matters. So many brilliant minds roam the halls of the UX world and I’ll admit, most days I just feel small in comparison.
Not that we need to feel big. But sometimes it’s easy to feel behind the class when you see so many people in our UX space publishing books, hosting podcasts, presenting at big conferences… the list goes on.
So while I don’t think I always have the most interesting things to say, I have found that when I feel inspired to write, I tend to write something helpful to someone, somewhere.
On the flip side, many people find setting aside a specific day and time to write helps them create on a schedule, muscling through the block or unease. Dries Buytaert, the creator of Drupal and co-founder of Acquia, recently wrote about his need to “return to writing” in his blog.
“When you break out of any habit, it can be hard to get back into it. To get back into a routine, it’s better to write something regularly than to write nothing at all. These seem achievable goals and I’m hopeful they get me blogging more frequently again.” — Dries Buytaert blog post, Wanted: a new blogging routine
Recently I was doubting my voice and perspective in the UX space and a colleague said not to worry so much about it — after all, no one else has my specific perspective, so regardless of the topic, my point of view will be unique.
There are so many ways to blog these days, from Wordpress to Medium to your own personal website. Sometimes writing is just good for getting all the muck out of your head.
So go for it. When you’re ready, write it. Produce it. Record it. Whatever you’re making, put it out in the world.
Find your community
One of the most amazing things about this UX journey is the connections built along the way. From the Content + UX community Slack (seriously, join this if you haven’t) to Twitter to conferences (shout out to the amazing community building at Confab!), there hasn’t been a lack of friendliness in my experience.
And it’s let me “rub elbows” with a lot of the folks I’ve admired for years in this industry.
It gives you space to ask questions, provide feedback, or even just vent about a difficult project. A community of peers is rewarding. Before I started this article, I asked a couple of friends in Slack if this topic was a good idea, and both agreed. And here it is, finally written.
Take a break…
…from all of it. Social, newsletters, webinars, the works. No one said you have to stay engaged all day, every day. Step away, take a breath, go for a walk — you do you. Find that headspace.
Taking a break could mean going on a vacation, shutting all of your digital life down, and staring at the ocean or a mountain peak. It could be taking a nap, or enjoying a movie weekend on your couch.
It can also just be focusing on your day-to-day work and shutting down when you’re done. In my times of stress and “not-good-enough-ness”, I find that focusing on my work and leaving my off-work time for leisure only opens my brain up for new ideas…when I’m ready to entertain them.
You’re the master of your own destiny and your own time. Use it wisely, but don’t clog the machine.
tl;dr You’re only human after all
What I’m about to say is just as much for me as it may be for you: You’re only human.
No one is tracking every second of your life to make sure you’re spending it digesting more and more information about your career. There’s no contest or reality show to be the best UX person on earth. (Oh, Lord, please don’t ever let that be a thing.)
At the end of the day, you know more than you think you do. And you’re bringing a unique set of perspectives and skills to your projects and the industry as a whole that you probably haven’t given your brain space to realize. So celebrate you! You’re doing awesome.
That pressure to be the best in your industry, to be perfect, to be admirable…is a pressure that only you’re carrying.
And it’s too damn heavy. Put it down.
Got any ideas to share on how you balance it all in the “content about UX” world? Drop your suggestions in the comments! I’m here for ‘em.
