3 Ways to Love What You Do as a Designer.

Things always go much more smoothly when you really enjoy what you do. So many people go to work day in and day out doing jobs that they don’t really like or spending lots of counter-productive time doing thing that don’t really do much to bring them closer to their ultimate goal. You have to set up your workflow to allow you to enjoy whatever you do and learn from it.

Even if you’re temporarily stuck doing something that is not quite directly related to whatever it is you really would like to be doing, you can still learn something valuable form the process with or without knowing it. It’s a bit like the scene in The Karate Kid where Mr. Miyagi teaches young Daniel-san all the karate moves he needed by having him mop the floor and do all the tasks around him. Luckily for me, I do actually genuinely enjoy my job to the point that I go home every night with a new set of transferable and valuable new skills. That’s so cool you’re thinking. So how do I do that too?

Refine.

Refine your processes so that you are as efficient as possible. Soon with having more time to spend on other tasks, the act of refining and making any kid of process will give you the ability to solve problems faster and transfer one method of something to another, drasticlly cutting down on your learning curve when learning

“A man… can be an artist… in anything. In food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it.”

That’s a quote taken from Christopher Walken in the movie Man on Fire and it’s one of my personal favourite movie quotes.

Turn whatever you do into a form of art.

Whatever you do, try to make it so that it has an artistic flair to it, so someone just knows that it was you who did it and not anyone else. You have to put allof yourself into your work. Others might disagree with whatever you create, (especially if you’re working for clients), but at least you can sleep sound knowing you put everything into it then only did half what you’re capable of.

Be Really Good.

Work becomes more fun when you’re really good at it. Having fun while working opens your mind up to new methods of thinking because you are more receptive to the idea that getting even better at what you do means more fun for you.

You don’t have to do all three at once, start by focusing on one, then add the rest when you’re ready. Try just one for a week and you’ll see a drastic difference in how you approach your work, your design problems and watch your creativity skyrocket.