That “Enter” key sure can be intimidating.

It shouldn’t be, I mean, it’s not even the biggest tile on the board. No big deal, just one of about a hundred keys on a standard keyboard. It can’t have any more importance than the other keys– I mean, Backspace is the same size, higher on the board though, so maybe it’s dominant? And Shift is bigger, that must mean it has more value, right? The Control key is smaller and that just seems wrong.

Despite the potential hierarchy of a keyboard, you all knew what I meant when you read the title of this blog.

Whether it’s a letter of request, an inner office memo, a love note to your special friend, or the last step to submission, pressing the Enter button, committing to Send, can be nerve-racking.

Sure, we hit it about a hundred times (maybe more!) a day, but then there are those times… Those SUPER important, what if I got something WRONG, what if I’m not READY times…

I don’t know about you, but I hover. Almost touching, but not quite, not yet.
I reread. I think about sending. I leave and come back.
I consider that yes, it’s ready, now’s the time… and then I repeat the process as needed. And it’s usually needed about fourteen times.

Pressing Enter is kind of a big deal.
Is it ready?
Are there typos?
Who am I sending to?
Have I forgotten anything?
How intoxicated am I?

Because once you hit that Enter button, there’s NO TURNING BACK.

And why is that?
Why isn’t there an Unsend button?
An edit-undo, Ctrl Z for premature Enter pushing?
A seven second delay button?
Or, let’s just call it what it would be called–
An OH SHIT key. Must be pressed at least two dozen times in rapid succession to properly work, but that wouldn’t be a problem now, would it?

The surest way to catch an error is to press Enter.

And yet, we do it daily. We must. There are deadlines to meet and dates to make, gossip to share and proofs to approve.
Yes, the Power to Press Send is within us. As is the occasional oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…