wearing a new hat

That's it, I'm quitting. If one more person asks me for one more document, I'm outta here. I'm gonna go lay on the beach somewhere out of site, out of mind and I'm never gonna look at any kind of technology ever again!

If you've ever had to write explanations for anything (a product, a service, a technology), you've probably felt this way at least once. It's that last request that just puts you over the top: something along the lines of "Can't you just create some HTML files so that we can put this on the Web? It can't be that hard -- you've already got all of the text doncha??

If you can call it quits and stay afloat, congrats. Go to it and enjoy (and quit reading right now).

If you can't go lie on the beach, and you've got to keep your job, there are ways to make life easier (at least in the long run). However, to keep yourself from going crazy, you'll have to put on hats that don't have a thing to do with commas or word choice or what the document looks like. The two major hats you'll need to don are the "planner" hat and the "techno" hat.

what can I do

Well, you could

• implement a single-sourcing approach to creating reusable content
• sit down and do a detailed (or not so detailed) cost justification for that new tool, computer, process, whatever
• use your composition tool (e.g., Word or FrameMaker) to automate mundane or repetitive tasks
• do an evaluation of what you produce, why you're producing it and then decide what would make it easier for you to meet your deadlines
• bone up on your interviewing skills by taking some journalism classes to learn how to get information from people who don't really want to share what they know
• create interview forms that would help your SMEs (subject matter experts) help you
• develop a systematized approach to creating content and documents that mimics the approach used by programmers and engineers
• create a detailed style guide that has distinct do's and don'ts, plus great examples for everyone to follow
• look for the similarities between output types (e.g., print and online) to see if you can cut down on what you have to rewrite
• jump ship and decide to live a simple life hidden in the woods somewhere (just wanted to see if you're still reading this!)