How to manage your time as a Designer
In my 8 years as a designer, I’ve come to see time management as an asset.
When I started out, I had a hard time keeping up with time. As I grew, I realized that work doesn’t control how I act, I do. Understanding the amount of time it takes for me to get something done and when I need to get it done allowed me to assess myself and how I work.
Once you understand your workflow, the work you would normally do in 2 hours can be done in 1 hour. More than anything else, create systems, there would always be a lot to do.
As a designer, you want to put in your best work, upskill, network, and still have free time to breathe. When you become a senior designer you will have more responsibilities, sometimes you have to manage people, you still want to be up to date with all the trends and knowledge in the industry and also have free time to spend with the people that matter the most to you.
Having systems in place would save you from always being in a cat and rat chase with time.
CREATE A SYSTEM FOR YOUR TIME
Each system you create is a time asset that goes on to work for you day in and day out. From my experience, here are ways to build systems for yourself.
Always create a checklist.
Creating a checklist helps you not to miss anything when performing a task. Plus, it frees your mind of more creative things since you don’t have to remember steps and procedures.
Checklists are especially useful for complex tasks that you do frequently. For such tasks, you should invest time in creating an accurate checklist to do the task much faster later.
Automate your tasks.
Amongst other tasks, creating a template for your frequent design tasks can be a way of automating your tasks. So you don't have to repeat the same procedure for the same tasks.If you have a template, you just need to duplicate it.
Learn the art of outsourcing.
I understand that no one would do work the way you will, but you can’t make the best of your time or achieve your lofty goals by doing everything yourself. No matter how good your time management skill can be, your time is still limited. You can supervise the step-to-step process of the tasks you outsource, and you also don't have to outsource tasks that have a direct impact on your output.
Multitask your learning.
For keeping up with trends and your learning, you can do this on the go. It would be time-saving to invest in audio (podcasts, audiobooks) rather than text. We have 24 hours in a day, and there’s a limit to how many tasks you can cramp into this time.
As a designer, you need to understand that there’s everything you need to do and there’s what you can do now or today. It helps to break your tasks into sizable, achievable, and realistic chunks that still help you reach your goals.
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