We’re 24 hours away from launching the brand-new website for my day job, and my brain hasn’t stopped buzzing for days.
Right now, the background hum is just a ton of insecurity and anxiety. I keep running through every task in my head — checking mobile layouts, clicking through the site, making sure nothing shifted when I wasn’t looking. I’m building an internal checklist of every last step and the order they need to happen in.
I don’t have a special launch ritual, unless you count “check it again” as a ritual. But I do know this: the moment it’s time to start the domain name propagation — the process that tells the internet’s servers where to find the new site — I will feel my heart rate spike. That click is second only to “deleting something important” in my list of web development stressors. I’ll take a few deep breaths, click the button, and then… cue the absolute panic.
I’ll be frantically reloading to see when the DNS changes take effect. (If you’re not a web person, think of it like telling the post office your new address and then pacing by the mailbox to see when the first piece of mail shows up.)
Once I see the new site start to appear, I’ll immediately launch into the same routine I’ve been doing for days: walking through every page, checking on every device, hoping everything works exactly as it should — and fixing anything that doesn’t.
Launch Day Reality: No Champagne, Just Checklists
I wish I could say I spend launch day soaking in the moment, but there’s no “sit back and celebrate” for me. Even if coworkers are offering congratulations, I’m in full-on triage mode:
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Re-checking analytics to make sure they’re tracking correctly.
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Clicking through every single link.
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Confirming every photo loads.
Logically, I know nothing should have changed between the moment before the button was clicked and the moment after — but the truth is, you never quite know. And until I’m satisfied, there’s no relaxing.
24 Hours After Launch: The Come-Down
By 24 hours after launch, the adrenaline will start to fade… but I’ll still be glued to analytics, bug reports, and my own walkthroughs. After a few hours, I’ll start to breathe again and move into planning the next steps.
That “emotional crash” people talk about after a big project? I don’t really let it happen. I just keep making lists.
I think most people don’t realize how stressful a launch can be, or how many moving parts there are behind the scenes. This time, I’m grateful to have a whole team and a supportive IT department — but as the webmaster, I still feel a heavy personal responsibility for everything to go right.
So tomorrow, I’ll take that deep breath, click the button, and ride out the 48-hour rollercoaster. Hopefully by then, I’ll be able to say it went smoothly… and maybe even enjoy it for a minute.
Photo by PJ Gal-Szabo on Unsplash
