Avoiding UX learning burnout

Or, how to calm the f — — down.

Since writing about rounding out your UX skills, I’ve seen a lot of stuff on t’internet about overwhelm and burn out in UX because there’s so darn much to learn.

The journey of UX learning

Here is a typical user journey…

1. Someone mentions some new prototyping software
2. You Google it
3. You watch a video
4. A comment on the video says “you should also try X software”
5. You end up on a Reddit about “UXers should be able to code”
6. Someone you respect on Twitter is talking about some new type of research you’ve never done
7. Your Whatsapp group pings with some new thing someone has pushed live
8. You get an email from Dribbbbble with a load of new animation UI
9. Your boss asks you if you know anything about X method
10. Your head explodes.

Some home truths

First truth — Hard things are hard

It’s true! There’s a lot to learn in UX. Sorry, hard things are hard. Even being a specialist in one or a few areas takes effort, study and practice.

Second truth — You don’t have to learn all of it

Unless you intend to be a UX team of one person in a company of 500,000+ you’re not going to need to be great at everything. (Also, don’t take that job. Sounds dreadful).

Third truth — Someone will always be “better” than you

Whatever you do, whatever you learn, it is unlikely that you will be literally the best in the entire world.

And someone will always ask “can you do X?” because either:

a) They are a potential employer or PM trying to understand the limits of your genius.

b) They are another UXer who is insecure and needs to diminish you to make themselves feel better. They probably also have a very small.. Sharpie.

Follow your own path

Here’s a little plan of action to get you through it.

1. Decide what flavour of UXer you want to be — Go back and do the skills matrix and plan your own training and development
2. Create a sensible, realistic training plan with defined topics, resources (that you have scoped in advance and that you will limit yourself to) and time to study.
3. Execute. Do not deviate. If interesting new stuff comes to your attention, add it to your backlog for much later.
4. Review progress periodically. i.e. Monthly reviews conducted by yourself or with one trusted mentor. Don’t weigh yourself everyday to see if the needle has moved.
5. Ignore others who try and tell you that you should be doing something else.

If you know where you’re going, and you have a map, then you’re not going to listen to the suggestions of a raging toothless madman on the side of the road.

Feel calmer? Good.

Above all, have a plan and execute it with focused determination. Aim to fulfil your own expectations of yourself, not others.

The entire industry is totally baffled by job titles and skill sets anyway. Make your own version of what a UXer looks like. Just be valuable.

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