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4 posts tagged with "Templates and Spreadsheets"

Blog posts that include templates or spreadsheets you can grab.

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Attend to the work

· 11 min read
Liz Argall
Technical Writer and Program Manager

This essay started as a love letter to mindfully turning up. I wanted to write about the power that comes from turning up a little bit at a time consistently. As I attended to the work of blogging regularly it evolved to be a love letter to processes, structures, systems and their interconnections. This essay gives you a tour of philosophies and metaphors that may feel disconnected at first, but all feed into creating meaningful, effective work while avoiding burnout.

Due to the nature of this essay, I've only done minimal edits while typing. This essay is a love letter after all, and it wouldn't do to over work it!

Let's begin

Over the last few blog posts, I've shared some resources for mindfully turning up for your docs and for yourself.

If you look at these resources you might get a sense of overwhelm. OMG, there's so much to do and I haven't done it all! It's easy for your mind to shut down and decide, if you can't do it all, what's the point?

Introduction to search term analysis

· 5 min read
Liz Argall
Technical Writer and Program Manager

If you want to jump straight straight into Search Term Analysis spreadsheet:

About

When we talk about content quality, findability is an important factor that extends beyond clean architecture. "Can the user find the data?" is a common question. Can the user find the data if they start with a Google search takes us deeper into this investigation.

At the Write the Docs Conference in Portland this year I gave a lightning talk on "Google Magic!" It showed how and get insight into your documentation in five minutes. Through this approach you can get a clearer understanding of your users and identify the most impactful ways to improve your docs.

This article goes into a bit more detail and provides a template for conducting several kinds of search term analysis.

Neurodivergent quality of life prioritization

· 5 min read
Liz Argall
Technical Writer and Program Manager

Jump straight straight into the Neurodivergent Quality of Life Prioritization (NQLP) Matrix:

illustration of a spiky haired character called Little Liz, a ferret is sitting on her head. Its tail is in front of of her face. A caption underneath reads "Dang brain weasels can make it hard to see!"

Creating a framework to manage the brain weasels

Whenever life doesn't go to plan, there is an opportunity to self reflect and find opportunities to learn and grow. This is a useful habit to cultivate and can turn adversity into an alchemical experience.

What is not helpful, is to look at the data, look at all the variables that go into being a human and come to the conclusion that you are a trash human/need to improve across all the criteria. This is especially challenging when you're not even sure what the criteria are, or perhaps the criteria changes as you analyze yourself from different angles.