New Year’s resolutions, content strategy edition
Happy New Year!
It’s time for some resolutions.
Lose weight
Most of us are carrying extra content weight. This includes:
- Time-consuming processes that clog up delivery and don’t improve results.
- Dead-weight content: information that is redundant or could be more concise.
Make it your goal in 2018 to slim down content and workflow.
Exercise more and improve your flexibility
Content needs to be compatible with delivery in many different formats, especially mobile devices.
So, in 2018, resolve to make content more flexible.
Learn a new skill
This one is for you rather than your content. Resolve to stay on top of industry developments. Think about new opportunities for your content and your career.
Stop smoking and other bad habits
Bad habits are killing your content:
- Focusing on the wrong kind of content because it’s fun to write (see: this post)
- Working in a vacuum
- Using the wrong tools
Resolve to play nicely with your colleagues, give and receive help graciously, and take a hard look at whether your content tools are right for your content requirements.
Improve your finances
A basic understanding of corporate finance will greatly improve your (professional) life. Check out this podcast on finance in technical communication with special guest Erin Vang.
Erin also has an excellent presentation on this matter called Show Me the Money (PDF link).
Use this and other resources to learn about budgets and corporate finance.
What are your resolutions for content?
About the author
Larry Kunz
Happy New Year, Sarah. That’s a nice list of resolutions.
One more: hang out with the right people. In other words, figure out who can help me learn new skills, keep up with tools and tech, and stay current — and then spend more time with them, figuratively (read their books, attend their webinars) and literally (when possible).
Vinish Garg
Sarah, wish you a Happy New Year 2018.
Exercise and weight-loss work best when we take care of our diet – so I would add ‘Commit to a Balanced Content Diet’.
Plan right content types (even if MVC, after quick and careful audit and analysis) for the right nutrition for long term organization health goals (not bad to have occasional snackable moments though, as fillers).