How to focus as a designer
It is very easy to be distracted, as well as having the urge to constantly start new things. There is no better feeling then finishing tasks that you set your self within the time frame. There are several methods to ensure that you are focused and you carry out your tasks effectively.
Plan your day
Failing to plan is most certainly a plan to fail. You need to know where you are heading as well as what you want to achieve. Have a read through How to stay motivated as a designer, this blog post discusses how effective setting goals are. When you are aware of your targets, you are able to break down the steps on how to achieve them. Tackling each day is a challenge in its self, but knowing how to go about it is already a huge success. It is best to plan the day ahead of you the night before, or even the week ahead of you.
Prioritise tasks
Once you have confidently planned out your day, it is important to understand which tasks need to prioritise. An effective system to use is ‘ABC task list’. This consists of labelling each task with letters A,B and C in terms of most important to least important tasks. For example:
A) Reply to emails
A) Carry out client work
B) Post on Instagram
B) Update website
C) Create YouTube Video
An easy way to label these tasks is to ask your self which one do I need to carry out to survive? Typically, the tasks that may bring in money or needed to run your business should be at the top such as replying/checking and carrying out client work.
Pomodoro Technique
Timing is crucial when carrying out tasks, as you need to make sure each task has an allocated amount of time. If you are not sure how long it may take, then you should set a max time limit. When you are working on tasks, it can also be easy to loose focus as you may just feel that your waiting for the clock to tick away. The Pomodoro Technique consists of 25 minutes of focused work, and then 5 minutes break. For example, if you have an A task such as Carry out client work, with the max time of 1 hour: 25 minutes, 5 minutes break, 25 minutes, 5 minutes break, then 10 minutes. The Pomodoro Technique is extremely efficient because working for only 25 minutes warms your brain up and gives you the urge to carry out more work as soon as you finish your break.
Dont stress.
This sounds like an obvious solution, however it is certainly the most crucial. At the end of your day, if you don’t manage to complete all your tasks, don’t panic as this will only make you overwork and continue to stress out further. Uncompleted tasks can always be carried out the next day, in this case, the ‘ABC’ method reduces your chances of failing to complete important tasks. If you regularly tend to not complete your A tasks, then maybe reduce the amount of A tasks allocated.
Overall, every creative person is different, but it sure does require discipline and routine to get the best out of your day. The techniques mentioned above will certainly allow you to focus more as long as you remain disciplined on your goals. As mentioned, the blog post How to stay motivated as a designer may show you how to set goals in order to stay focused.