Motivation and Productivity habit — a Product Designer’s routine.
You may be reading this because you are a Product Designer too just like me or perhaps, you’re just curious about how you can improve your productivity and motivation. Whoever you are, thank you.
I have been doing design for more than a decade now and by experience, I have been through ups and downs too. burnouts, stress, and dealing with challenging stakeholders are just some of the day-to-day struggles you also come across. In my younger years, I tend to hold on to it, but now — I manage to be friends with these hurdles and try to make them my friend.
I generate a routine myself that increases my productivity and lets go of these external challenges that I have no control over. Here are some of the things I do to make myself functional as much as I can and be happy with my day after I turn off my laptop and I hope these can help you too. I guess this is also a peek at how I work as a designer.
1. When you wake up, make your bed…
The first thing you should do in the morning is to make your bed. Why? motivation starts the time you set up yourself. I really like how Navy Seal William McRaven phrases this in one of his keynotes. I grew up in Asia and this is long before practiced in our culture. (Unless you are born rich, then you won’t get this kind of batting.)
Making your bed in the morning seems to be a small task but if you look at it, this habit feeds an attitude of ticking off those small tasks that can be done quickly. “You can never change the world if you can’t even make your own bed”. Seems a little odd quote but works for me.
2. Get Moving…
Exercise at least 10–30 minutes a day, start your day with a HIIT or an exercise that makes your blood pumping. A morning boost is proven to keep you from preparing for the day.
I have a routine to walk my dog in the morning and I even am now in a state where I don’t care if it rains or not, we will keep on our routine. My advice as always is to make an incremental step. Just like what the book Atomic Habit says, 1% is better than 0%. Small incremental value! just like how you are making those small changes to your design, these small changes will keep you productive too. I believe in what you do in life, reflects in what you do at work too.
3. Time Block your Calendar…
Your calendar is like your map to your week, it’s your point-on-point interaction between your projects. I you’re like me, I work with 4 different products at the same time, and If I don’t have a proper view of my calendar, I will never know what to prioritize first.
Some days can be so hectic and some days are not, but what I learn from one of my colleagues is to time block specific work you need to do and you can focus at it on that specific hour. It really improved my productivity so much that even my Product Managers gives me feedback about my efficiency. For me, focusing on one thing at a time works best because I can pay attention to one thing and finish it. e.g. Workshop, research to synthesize, prototypes, discovery, or whatever you need to do, log it in your calendar and set the time for you to work on it.
4. If possible, schedule a “test day/test week”…
Well, if you are the same as my workload, you will struggle to sneak in your users to do all tests (e.g. usability, research, interviews) for one day so If you have a really good partner-in-crime user researcher, or you are doing this in your own, try to make a “test day” or “test week”. What’s good about this technique is the idea, feedback, and information are still fresh and raw. If you’re reading BJ Fogg’s behavioural model, when motivation is high, you have the capacity to complete the task at hand easily.
What I do is the end of the test, I do block another 30min to an hour to synthesize the idea or feedback, giving me that time to pour in all the information and data to the task that I do. I will rarely do the full synthesizing of the data at the end of the test because you will feel overwhelmed with the data at your glance, instead, I do it incrementally so that at the end of the research or testing, I already see the pattern from the result and I can quantify it to present to higher-level stakeholders.
5. Take notes…
Pen and paper are my always go-to tools, never get old, not reliant on power. Call me old school but in my experience as a designer, still the best tool ever (2nd to Figma). Whenever there is ad-hoc key information I need to remember, notes are my best friend. With such an amount of work I am doing, I will never ever trust my brain to remember all of it. Instead, this is the tool that I trust most.
As a designer, you need to document this information so that you can use it in validating your idea, as well as presenting raw data to your key stakeholders.
6. Keep a centralise documentation…
“The source of truth” as they say. With all information floating in confluence, MIRO, Productboard, Notion, recordings, Airtable, or any organisational tools you are using — having centralise information for any of your projects will save you heaps!
A good designer documents! I have worked with numerous design agencies before with a branding that takes 45 versions and on one occasion, my boss asks me to pull version 28 which the director liked to move forward, one of my colleagues gets anxious because they have changed the asset every time my manager asked for change. I have managed to document all these and pull them out of my centralise folder. Trust me, this will save lots of hours!
7. Prioritise what matters…
As your work progress throughout the day, there will be some moving pieces of your board that will need to pay more attention than other, take some time to look at them — visit their context back, check the due or when did you promise the deliverables.
There’s no such thing as ASAP (As soon as possible). ASAP does not define when and what time does a deliverable needs to be on the stakeholder's table. Instead, always ask for the date when it’s needed or even the time (especially ad-hoc projects) because it will define your productivity, what can you provide and what level of work should they expect from you. Time, cost, and quality are finite resources and this will play a big role in how much work can you only do within the timeframe. By asking these from your stakeholders, they will also give them an idea of what to expect.
8. Breathe…
Finally, the last addition to my routine is never forgetting to breathe. A free mind is a focused mind. The moment you let your emotion control your head, it’s gonna be catastrophic. In a world full of information-seeking for attention, you need to practice calmness and composure. As your board gets blocked, multiple meeting invites and deliverables are coming up. Always take a breath, focus your energy again, and look at priorities.
A challenging stakeholder? breathe. Does a design need to be iterated? breathe. Projects are at the boiling point? breathe. Remember that external forces that you can’t control, let go. Just document it, and make a note. Don’t push yourself hard on things you can never control in life and at work. If you need to take some time off, please do.
Designers are a mix of problem solvers, facilitators, influencers, and educators. The more we understand the pattern of the problem, the more we can focus and divert our energy on how to solve it. It’s a practice by experience. Just like me, you will fail, but you will learn. So don’t forget to breathe.
Bonus…Celebrate!
One thing that I have blocked in my calendar is a 15-minute end-of-day reflection on what I have done today. I list down milestones that I have ticked, keep my goal aligned for the next day, and celebrate wins and learnings! life is about learning and small things need to be celebrated especially when you work in the tech industry.
And if you still keep reading my article and you came a long way to this line. From one designer to another, not all might help you out but I hope few will do. Remember that your work speaks for yourself, and you are the embodiment of the quality of contribution you are producing wherever you work. So love what you do and make sure to always be motivated and productive.
