Congratulations to all the ContentMaxxers out there. Your relentless pursuit of more better content has finally been recognized.
Dictionary.com has named "maxxing" its 2026 Word of the Year.
For the uninitiated, maxxing means taking something to the extreme in an effort to optimize it. People are looksmaxxing to improve their appearance, sleepmaxxing to get better rest, and proteinmaxxing to improve their diets.
And apparently, maxxing is having quite a moment. According to the BBC:
Digital media used "maxxing" nearly 19 times more in August 2026 compared to the 2025 monthly average, Dictionary.com found.
Apparently, even the word "maxxing" is maxxing.
Naturally, I have a favorite: ContentMaxxing.
ContentMaxxing is the practice of constantly producing more better content in an effort to attract and retain an audience. More videos. Better podcasts. More engaging social media posts. Better email newsletters. And, of course, more AI tools to help you produce all of it faster.
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If you've ever finished creating something only to immediately start worrying about what you're going to publish next, you may be a ContentMaxxer.
The Dark Side of Maxxing
There's nothing inherently wrong with maxxing. As teacher and content creator Lauren Cella explained to the BBC:
Maxxing gives the students permission to "optimise to meet a goal" or do something others might think of as "cringe", and allows them to own it.
But we need to talk about that cringe factor, because there's a difference between wanting to improve something and feeling like you can never stop improving it.
When everything becomes something to optimize, nothing is ever good enough. There's always another improvement to make, another metric to chase, another person doing it better than you.
For content creators, the problem is that when everybody starts ContentMaxxing, nobody gets an advantage for very long. Yesterday's extraordinary production quality becomes today's minimum expectation. Yesterday's ambitious publishing schedule becomes today's bare minimum.
And the audience doesn't suddenly have more hours in the day to consume everything we're producing.
So we keep producing more better content, hoping to stay ahead of the competition. But when everyone else does the same thing, the competition gets even tougher.
The problem with ContentMaxxing is that there's no finish line.
You can build an audience, successfully monetize it, and still find yourself constantly producing more better content just to maintain what you've already built.
What started as a creative pursuit can become an exhausting obligation.
Is There Another Way?
Maybe the solution isn't to create even more content. Maybe it's to create more opportunities for the people in our audiences to connect with one another.
That's the idea behind Community Revenue: building a business where people create value for each other, instead of relying entirely on what you produce next.
Of course, that doesn't mean you can quit making content tomorrow. But it might mean you can eventually stop treating every new post, podcast, or video as a matter of survival.
Your ContentMaxxing Award Awaits
If you've spent countless hours optimizing thumbnails, experimenting with AI tools, studying analytics, and wondering why your latest masterpiece only got 37 views, your efforts deserve recognition.
That's why I've created an official ContentMaxxing laptop sticker.
Whether you're a proud ContentMaxxer or a reluctant participant in the endless competition for attention, you can claim your free ContentMaxxing laptop sticker here:
Wear it as a badge of honor. Or a warning to others.
Either way, you've earned it.
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