Avoiding Burnout as a Technical Writer [Collaborative Post]
May 6th, 2011 | Posted in blog 14 Comments »
After I linked to my interview with Kristi Leach about collaborative posts, a reader submitted the following question:
One of the problems I’ve had to combat over the years has been boredom/burnout — that feeling you get either when you’ve been on the same project for too long or a you’re on new project that just feels like exactly what you’ve been working on for years. How do you breath life into work that you’ve done many, many times before?
In my experience, burnout can happen for a number of reasons: the work I’m doing isn’t challenging, the work I’m doing has little meaning, I’m not learning anything new, I’m doing something I’m not passionate about, or the workload I’m shouldering is overwhelming.
In Unhappiness is Good for You, Penelope Trunk says, “According to Leslie Martin, author of the new book, The Longevity Project, stress and anxiety that arise from working hard at something that is engaging and exciting to you is actually a more healthy way to live than in a regular state of cheerfulness.”
Unhappiness and burnout aren’t the same problem, but “working hard at something that is engaging and exciting” probably provides the cure for both. The trick is figuring out how to convert your mundane and boring tasks into work that is engaging and exciting. How do you do that? You do that by continually evolving as a technical writer, by trying new techniques, tools, and methods.
For example, I recently implemented the Semantic Mediawiki extension on my wiki help content. I’m going through all my topics to add metadata using the extension’s syntax, and then I’ll try to make sense of it with various queries. It’s interesting and complex. Sometimes I barely understand what I’m doing. But the possibilities intrigue me.
I’m also writing user awareness articles for a newspaper (if they ever get published). These articles discuss what my organization is doing with technology. I thought the articles would be easy to write, but so far they’re maxing out all my creative skills and proving to be exhausting. Despite the work, it’s precisely this challenge that engages me and keeps my attention.
I’m also trying to figure out how to involve community volunteers in editing and writing content for a technology blog. Community dynamics are tough. Sometimes volunteers get involved in ways that astound me; other times I feel alone. But trying to be a community leader to move forward a mountain of work is challenging, engaging, and as a result, just plain interesting.
To avoid burnout, then, I suggest trying something new, even if it’s really hard. What’s hard also tends to be engaging.
Do you have a response for this reader about avoiding burnout? If so, add it in the comments below.
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Tags: boredom, burnout, challenges, collaborative posts, engagement, penelope trunk, Technical Writing
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“Continually evolving as a technical writer” — yes, that’s the key. “Continually evolving as a professional” might be even more apt. Become actively involved in usability testing. Or spend a day with the tech-support team and work with them to develop a process for involving them in documentation reviews. Anything that broadens your horizons and lets you know that you’re making a contribution.
You can even take a job outside technical writing. That’s how I rejuvenated my career when I experienced burnout in my late 30s.
Once I got away from technical writing and product research, I wanted to get back to it and continue with that career path. Blogging has certainly helped fill some of the gaps but I’d really rather have a big project to complete.
Most of my current work consists of mostly administrative assistant work. I am so burnt out on taking minutes all day long. So I’m always on the lookout for a **real** technical writing project.
Right now I am working with a Lotus Notes developer who loves to develop but knows she lacks documentation skills. I’m creating user references, flow charts, and procedure manuals during my downtimes. It’s an off-the-radar project, but it makes me, the developer, and the database users happy.
Otherwise, I keep reading on the industry, doing what I can to keep my skills sharp and ready for the next TW opportunity.
I’m currently in a mental place of extreme burnout, so I’ve made a decision to work two part-time jobs rather than one full-time technical writing job. Job #1 is my current tech-writing job. Job #2 is as an adjunct instructor at the local community college, teaching freshman comp, writing about literature, and business/technical writing. I taught in a former life and loved it; I originally got into tech writing because I needed the health insurance that came with the corporate package. As it turned out, I love tech writing, but I miss teaching. So I’m hoping the dual jobs will rescue me from my current burnout. My company has said I’m welcome to come back to full-time once the semester is over. I may do that if my little foray into academia proves unsatisfying in comparison to what tech writing offers.
One thing my company did last year was let me offer a company-wide two-day course on business writing. It was very successful and I’ll be teaching it again this year. Your reader might be surprised at how willing some companies are to let you “spread your wings” and do tasks that aren’t strictly tech-writing tasks.
BTW, some other things I’ve done at tech writing jobs to counteract burnout:
- Started a blog for our department
- Am getting involved in doing a wiki for our department this summer
- Offered to be our department’s blog coordinator for our company’s blog
- Helped to develop internal training, mostly for new employees (Previously, I simply documented the training materials. They were pretty bad, so I asked to be able to help develop the training.)
- Offered to help write a newsletter for our department
- Offered to manage our department’s intranet
- Looked for unlikely places where documentation might be needed, mostly internal-procedure type situations, and then wrote the documentation
Great post! I chuckled as I read through everyone’s comments, as I’m in the reverse situation of some commenters–I’m a veteran college English instructor whose burnout has led her to return to school for a graduate certificate in technical writing. (My M.A. in English is a great degree to have, but hasn’t been too appetizing to prospective employers looking to have someone rewrite the installation manual for their best-selling bidet.)
Like many of you, I’ve done my best to work on other projects that truly capture my interest as I make the transition from teaching into the corporate world. Glad to know other people have been asking themselves some of the same questions I’ve been asking myself.
I so second this article. You have to find new challenges at work. Writing documentation is boring? Well, try to change it.
Our whole team (well, almost) have experienced burnout during the past few months. Updating current documentation, nothing new. So we decided to completely change the way we work. We are moving from a 400-page guides to online knowledge base, we are preparing video scripts for how-tos.
The result so far? Each day I spend 10-14 hours at work without even noticing it. I love the research, I love learning new things, working with new software. I even work at home on weekends. And it feels good.
Since the beginners or relatively less experienced technical writers continue to grow and learn the new tools, documentation methodologies, and best practices, the concern of *writing burnout* is more valid for experienced professionals, may be for ‘learning stagnation’ over a period of time.
The key is to raise the bar every time and as Larry commented above–to continue to evolve as a professional. For your last four completed projects, even if the clients are completely satisfied with the documentation, you need to see “what extra effort you made” or “how you added more value” to the latest of those four. So, setting up benchmarks for self is the key.
PS: Larry, nice meeting you at the STC India Summit at Bangalore, earlier this week.
I like to be learning something new all the time. Sometimes I get involved in a project that just gets boring, so I look for outside stimulation. About a year and a half ago I joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary. I am already boat crew qualified, a vessel examiner (perform boat safety checks once or twice a month), and AUXOP qualified. The last of these involved passing courses in communications, seamanship, patrols, weather, leadership, and navigation. I am also qualifying as an instructor to teach some of these courses. All this has been enlightening and has improved my safety and performance in my own recreational boating. I am not recruiting for the Auxiliary, but I am sure you can find other volunteer activities that would stir your interests and give your mind a break from the other work.
I wanted to do my documentation job in a much more smarter way. I got bored of doing things the traditional way.
So, I started writing VBA codes for MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel that help me in my documentation projects. I have developed some complex macros that help me in reviewing documents, converting powerpoint documents to Word while retaining the template structure, transferring content across MS Office products, generating defect logs for the documents I review, generating acronym lists, and many more.
To avoid boredom, I like to:
-Try newer and smarter ways of doing my regular tasks
-Try new processes and tools
-Learn new style guides and documentation standards
-Tweak our processes to make them more efficient
-Learn the technologies involved in my documentation projects
Hello, I stumbled on this website from a technical writing wiki website. As a college freshman, I’ve started looking into the field of technical communication/writing, but I’d like to inquire about the availability of job opportunities once you have completed a 3-4 year English degree towards this field? In other words, what types of jobs might a technical writer pursue in addition to, say, writing software manuals for various companies, or grant letters for scientific research centers? Also, what skills or perhaps experience would be recommended if I were to enter this field?
I apologize for the irrelevant comment, but there seem to be so many experienced individuals in this field over here that I feel like I could receive good advice here.
Thank you.
I totally agree. By being eternally evolving, in whatever your field, nothing is ever the same. In fact, a focus on the need for change can prevent you from being fully present where you are and in the end, hold you back from moving forward. I truly believe we get the experiences we need in this life.
Interesting observation. I hadn’t thought about it this way. You’re right — people shouldn’t seek change for change itself, but rather try different approaches and solutions to long-standing problems.
I am extremely familiar with the feelings the reader described. No matter how much you try, some projects just don’t interest you. I honestly believe that if I cannot put my full attention into something then I am not doing the right thing for my client. For this reason if I just can’t concentrate on a writing project I find someone who can do it on my behalf, someone who will be interested and will do the work justice. I know not everyone has this luxury but it is in the customer’s best interests.