The process of developing or designing a website can be a time-consuming one. Designers will have to spend long periods trying to come up with effective web platforms, particularly if the project crosses a new terrain where they don’t have a lot of experience. With some help, designers can learn to work more efficiently which will translate to more productivity. This article will provide some tips that will go a long way in helping designers achieve their targets in a more efficient manner.
Plan your day
This might be a very basic piece of advice, but it is an immensely helpful one. You should plan your day by allocating an amount of time to each task that you have to complete for the day. You don’t want to end up spending too long on one task, thereby neglecting others because there isn’t enough time. This advice is so good that it should be applied to every aspect of your life – not only to web design.
Cut out distractions
Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, Slack, and even your email account can act as big distractions – especially when they continually pop up on your screen. It is recommended that you should manage these distractions before you begin work in the morning. You can do this by closing unnecessary programs or applications, muting notifications that aren’t essential, and setting up scheduled breaks to reply to your emails.
Track your time
One of the ways to improve productivity is to track how long it takes you to complete different tasks. This will be helpful in avoiding a circumstance where you end up getting paid for less than the number of hours you have put into the project. In addition to this, when you track your time, you will be able to provide clients with a rough, but close estimate as to when you’ll complete their projects. You don’t want a scenario where a client contacts you because they think that you should have finished working on the task. If you schedule your tasks and allocate sufficient time to each of them, you will not lose time having to backtrack tasks that you have forgotten about. You can use task management software or application to help you with this.
Put your process in a template
It is a great idea for you to save templates of your processes on your task management application or software. By doing this, when you get a new project, all you will have to do is copy the process template, input the tasks that concern the new project, and start ticking them off one by one. This can be applied to every aspect of your workflow – including web design tasks, finding new clients, onboarding new clients, post-launch activities, and even non-project work. The major advantage of this is the familiarity it ultimately breeds. In the long run, you should spend less time on the logistics involved in managing tasks and instead focus on the creative part of the project. When you put your workflows into templates, you will likely break them into smaller tasks – which will make the work less daunting to tackle.
Work in bursts
Working in bursts can immensely improve your productivity. Working in spells of 10–20 minutes will provide your brain with enough time to generate fresh ideas. It will also ensure that you don’t suffer from burnout. It is advisable that you don’t spend long stretches of time working, as your speed will decrease over time and the quality of your work will also suffer in the process.
Take breaks
One of the most important aspects of working in bursts is the break you get: it is essential that you allow your brain to rest. Make use of these breaks to detach yourself from work. You can stretch outside, fix yourself a snack, or watch funny videos on YouTube. Basically, you can do anything that can separate you from thinking of work. If you don’t need to, you shouldn’t bother trying to track how long your break is. All you have to do is work till you’re at a great resting point – and take a break until you’re refreshed enough to continue. Just like yourself, your PC will also require rest at intervals. For example, if you’re making use of a 4GB RAM laptop, it will need rest once in a while to maintain optimum performance. We’re not actually much different from computers, so ensure that you maximize your breaks.
Automate most of your admin work
There are times when the majority of your day is taken up by admin work, which can be very boring and tedious. To circumvent this, you can employ two methods. The first is outsourcing this aspect of your work to an assistant or a professional service provider; the second option is to use automation with the help of software, and if your business is a small one, you should certainly go down this route. There are many tools are available (with plenty of them being free to use) that can help you automate those tasks that can be boring and time-consuming.
Don’t overcomplicate your work
This is a very important tip to follow – it should even become a mantra for you. You should never attempt to tackle more tasks than you need to and you also shouldn’t give yourself too much to complete in a short period of time. This doesn’t mean you should always give your clients the bare minimum every time, but you definitely shouldn’t always attempt to give them the maximum all the time, as this isn’t sustainable.
illustration: people illustrations by Storyset