I think that any designer is not satisfied with his efficiency and time management! I consulted tons of designers and very few of them were content with their manner of work and how much they progress across a working day. Somehow, it’s normal that once a designer gets more and more experienced he becomes more efficient. The main issue is that any designer efficiency may be represented by a sinus curve: some days are very good while others are a real hell. Well, is it possible to be merely on an ascending trend? How could anyone improve his time management? These two questions are vital and everyone is in search of a better answer. The bad aspect is that no one has the perfect and universal valid answers; the positive aspect is that some people seem to be closer to the solution. Unfortunately, even twins have different behaviors and tastes, so it’s impossible to have a single solution for everyone.
In conclusion, being merely on an ascending trend isn’t in line with the human nature. Instead, it shouldn’t be a reason to get lazy because on the long term perspective any designer should evolve. More pragmatically, a designer could have a day, a week or even a month when things go bad, but, across the year, he must have a positive evolution. Being inefficient for a day or two isn’t something unusual, it’s written in our DNA!
Regarding the improvement of time management, yes, here anyone can contribute. Once again, the solution can’t be universal, but few tips seem to work for the huge majority of us. Few years ago, I considered the articles about time management, published by web design blogs, being a boring lecture. I was so radical that I didn’t find the connection between web design and time management. Nowadays, I have a different perspective: time management is very important. The truth is that a web design blogger should post mostly about the hot topics of web design- and we have tons of important issues to debate, but it’s highly recommended to treat time management best practices. Probably, many people embraced my past mentality about time management because the articles published were very poor and rarely contained tips to really improve the workflow.
From the beginning I must mention that when dealing with time, there is no miracle and the positive effects are noticeable after a medium period of time. Many previous posts about time management were nothing more than a longer or shorter enumeration of best practices. Definitely, I don’t state these types of posts are useless, but I consider that there is way better to treat the time management from a more “scientific” perspective. The time management experts divided this field into three major classes:
- Willingness aspects – how to stay motivated and focused on managing time;
- Space aspects- how to create a better working environment;
- Scheduling aspects- the way time is scheduled.
Willingness aspects
Time management begins from the mind of the individual; you can’t better manage the time if you don’t really want it. Anyone should be aware that time management is equivalent of getting out of the comfort zone. Our brain is adapting to a specific environment and it’s fighting to stay as much as possible in this context- it’s correct to say that the brain is lazy. The specialists called this state as the comfort zone. A better time management supposes exactly the opposite- to slightly change something to get better results. This conflict explains why it’s so difficult to improve the workflow- the brain likes his medium and don’t want to give up at it.
This fact means that the individual should overcome the brain impulses that “recommend” avoiding any modifications. A good approach is to focus on the final result of a correct policy in managing the time: more walks into the nature, more time with the family or for hobbies and these rewards works as a magnet for everyone.
Space aspects
In order to save more time, it is capital to create an efficient workspace. The best method to realize a good workspace is to test how a modification may affect efficiency. Some people work better when they are listening to their favorite songs while others prefer to enjoy the silence. In this respect, it’s up to each one’s preferences and habits.
In spite of that, the general recommendation is to avoid any source of disturbance. Space management means that during working hours one should stay away from family, friends and eventually from cell phone. Another universal tip to better manage space is to customize the office according to the needs. Everything that is needed in the work process should be at hand! I shouldn’t mention that the tidiness is mandatory!
Scheduling aspects
Combining the various activities of a working day isn’t a very easy task. The term “responsive” is borrowed from architecture and interior design and it designates the pieces of furniture that are adaptive, that are modified according to the needs. An efficient designer creates responsive websites using a responsive schedule. We, the humans, can’t have full control over the unexpected events across a day. Comprehending that you, the designer, should adapt to nature/hazard/God’s will, and not the opposite, is the first step in creating a responsive schedule.
My personal advice is to keep a schedule that should be respected, but it should contain a special item- “unexpected situations” that sometimes might take more than half a day.
You may accuse that this post is useless as long as it doesn’t provide a secret tip that allows saving time. I don’t blame you because I was doing the same few months ago. A better idea for you is to understand that time management depends, in 99% of the cases, on each individual. If someone really wants to save time, then he will. The final conclusion is simple: test yourself and pay attention to the conclusions…this is the winning combination!
