Are you really as productive as you want to be?
In our world of everything-all-the-time, it’s easy to find ourselves in reactive-mode rather than truly tapping into our creativity and productivity. Here are seven smart ways to become a more productive designer.
1. Build thinking time into your schedule
When we get overwhelmed, we lose our ability to prioritize. Suddenly, minutiae becomes as important as the things that will create genuine forward motion. Our activity is scattered rather than focused.
When we are caught in this vortex, the last thing we feel like we can do is stop and step out of it. After all, balls will drop. Besides, we are pretty sure that if we just press in a little harder, we will be able to catch up.
That’s a myth.
Scheduling a “think day” each month, then defending it as if it were a client meeting, keeps us aware of the big picture view. We stop long enough to figure out where we are—where our projects are—and where we are going. It allows us to assess what matters and align our efforts toward it. That macro perspective is a big win when we are back in the thick of things responding. It keeps us from being thrown off course and refreshes our sense of priority.
Don’t feel like you can take a whole day each month? Then do it incrementally. Put a block of 2-3 hours on your calendar each week and don’t let anything overwrite it.
2. Eat the frog
You know that task you are avoiding? The one you dread? Well, that’s the one you most likely need to do first.
Productivity guru Brian Tracy writes,
Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it.
Being willing to “eat the frog” first means the important trumps the urgent. Sometimes that most important task will be the one that scares you.
Tracy considers this capacity for tackling your major task first thing each morning an essential leadership quality for anyone who intends to accomplish great things.
It isn’t unusual for people to mistake busy-ness for accomplishment. Being willing to “eat the frog” first means the important trumps the urgent. Sometimes that most important task will be the one that scares you. The one you are afraid you will fail at.
And sometimes, it is just filling out your expense reports so your accountant doesn’t up and quit on you.
3. Create alignment within yourself
Have you ever designed for a client who had multiple people in authority with competing priorities? That structure often results in a compromised design. Contrast that with a client that has a unified leadership team committed to a clear mission. The difference is stunning, right?
The same thing happens to us. Sometimes our productivity challenge is that there is no clear mission for what we are doing.
People with a mission don’t settle for doing things the way they’ve always been done. They strategize to meet their mission faster.
Without alignment to a mission, it is difficult to prioritize. But when we are clear on where we are going, then we can run fast. We don’t get stuck on autopilot or diverted to lesser missions. People with a mission don’t settle for doing things the way they’ve always been done. They strategize to meet their mission faster.
4. Go for value-based commitments over time-based commitments
We usually make commitments based on time. However, sometimes that 10-minute thing we commit to sucks the life out of us.
It makes sense that we would make time the deciding factor. After all, it’s a limited resource. We attempt to balance time commitments like expenses in a checking account.
The problem with making commitments based on time is that it rarely works. (As evidenced by how often we overdraw our “time checking account.”) For one thing, we tend to be poor judges about how much time something will take, and for another we tend to experience time differently based on what we are doing.
A better framework is to focus on value. If we are clear on what activities produce the highest value, then time becomes less relevant. We make decisions about commitments based on which ones will have the highest impact in meeting the mission. And we discard the ones that don’t.
5. Adopt the practice of batch tasking
Multi-tasking is the enemy of productivity. We feel like we are accomplishing things, but really we are just jumping from task to task. Batch tasking (also known as batching or time blocking) is when you tackle the same types of tasks in the same time slot during the day.
Batch tasking (also known as batching or time blocking) is when you tackle the same types of tasks in the same time slot during the day.
The concept is fairly simple. You just group similar tasks by their function (design work, responding to emails, business development, meeting with clients). You can do this by focusing on different types of tasks different days of the week, or by blocking different time slots on your schedule.
The efficiency in batch tasking isn’t just about the time you save opening/closing programs and trying to reorient yourself to a new task. It has to do with the headspace required to get different types of tasks done. Responsive-mode is different to creative-mode. Being able to stay in a single work mode for a longer period of time makes you more efficient.
6. Base your deliverables on client priorities
Have you ever spent a lot of time on something only to learn the client didn’t care about it at all when you delivered it?
The very best designers have a deep understanding of what each client cares about because the first part of their process is invested in getting to know the client.
The very best designers have a deep understanding of what each client cares about because the first part of their process is invested in getting to know the client.
They know which clients want the highlights and which ones want the details. They know which clients want to be involved in the design process and which ones want to delegate it. They know who cares about the stage and who cares about the green room.
When we are moving too quickly, we get buried in our own priorities. Or worse, we assume “we’ve got this.” Taking time for front-end alignment helps us base our deliverables on client priorities, which saves us from wasting time on the back-end doing things they don’t care about.
7. Invest in yourself
Benjamin Hardy, author of Willpower Doesn’t Work, writes, “To be average is to lack purpose in your life. It’s to be apathetic, and to not really believe in anything with enough conviction to sacrifice for it, invest in it, and fight for it. “
One of the things Hardy recommends is investing in yourself, because “only those who are invested are truly committed.”
Investing in yourself is an intentional choice. It requires commitment....
Whether you invest in developing yourself through leadership coaching, further technical training, or joining a mastermind group which requires a steep entrance fee (one of the things that Hardy did), you let yourself know you are serious when you commit money and time to making yourself better.
Investing in yourself is an intentional choice. It requires commitment. But it might be the most effective move you can make when it comes to becoming a more productive designer.
When you take the time to look not only at the work, but at how you work, you get to leave the office each day knowing you’ve accomplished something that matters.
You lose that feeling of being overwhelmed because each day is aligned with your priorities.
Sure, the world of everything-all-the-time still rushes along at breakneck speed ... but you are no longer simply being swept along.
[Editor's note: Originally published in September 2019 Cover Stories]
