5 Design Productivity Tips
I’ve been hit by the meme train again, this time by webee for noting my five productivity tips for designing. Or maybe they aren’t supposed to be about design. Well, they will be anyways!
- Work with the client directly. While over MSN or in person, this is always number one for keeping me focussed and working well. Maybe it’s just that while actually talking to the person it’s harder to get distracted because they’re right there talking to you.
- Start over. Dead end? Can’t find the next part to fit with your design? Ctrl + N
For me when a design really isn’t just rushing into my head and coming out really quick I’ll usually start over. It’s hard to build off ideas that were weak to start with anyways. - Break time. Check emails, read RSS, write something, work on a personal project or whatever. Sometimes the best medicine for a design is a little alone time.
- Pen and paper. Start sketching out ideas by hand if they aren’t coming digitally. This can really help you, and when you add it as part of your normal process things can really start flowing. The only problem is not screwing yourself by drawing things you can’t design.
- Take the rest of they day off. If you’re at a dead end everywhere you g, just pack it in for the day. The thing is that you have to know that these days are few and far between, and to not let it affect you on a higher level.
I’ve been reading some of these where people say designing early in the morning or late at night is the best time. For me, it’s the first try. Whenever it may be, my first idea is usually the strongest. Of course building on it comes natural, but the foundation should be there.
As for making other people do this, and continuing the train as it were, I’ll just go down my blogroll and tag these people (and give them some awesome anchor text):
- Alex Mould, who is a young site developer.
- Adnan of Blogtrepreneur, an entrepreneur blog.
- Josh Buckley, an internet entrepreneur.
So there you have it, some productivity tips and how to give out nice links to the people you tag 
Leave a comment
Andrew Rouhafzai
May 12th, 2007 at 12:15 AM
Nice post
Alex Mould
May 12th, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Thanks for the tag, I needed something to update on
webee
May 14th, 2007 at 2:10 AM
hi connor,
thanks for the mention
i personally like the “take the rest of the day off” tip.
nice job!
webee
[is a design blog]
Connor Wilson
May 14th, 2007 at 11:10 AM
Webee, I had to pull that comment out of Akismet for some reason. Weird, normally the spam comments are trying to sell me Viagra or link me somewhere
webee
May 14th, 2007 at 1:08 PM
haha… wanna buy viagra? :))
Connor Wilson
May 14th, 2007 at 1:16 PM
No thanks, I’m good, but it troubles me that you have some to sell
Thijs Visser
August 4th, 2007 at 5:14 PM
Nice post.
Nowadays, I always start with Pen and Paper.
In the beginning the big problem was, as you discribed: “The only problem is not screwing yourself by drawing things you can’t design.”
But if you can pull it off then holding on to an sketch can be really useful.
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