photo: jek in the box
"How do you get all your work done?"
It's a question I've asked, overheard, or been asked by others countless times in one variation or another. Creative professionals seem to have a special relationship with the clock, whether because of the nature of the work (we have to get "inspired", but a lot of us also bill by the hour) or because of the nature of the worker -- design, illustration and other creative disciplines are known for attracting the truculent and quirky in disproportionate numbers.
Given the large fraction of us who work to a ticking clock, whether as a freelancer, in a consultancy, or through a corporate budgetary allotment, figuring out The Trick to being productive all day, every day, is of great concern. The problem, as most of you are probably already aware, is that there is no Trick, just as there's no Secret to Being Creative. In a professional field where singularity is a competitive requirement, any kind of universal directive for being productive, efficient, or content seems doomed to fail.
That said, it never hurts to ask. So I did. In a thoroughly unscientific sampling, I sat down in person or on the phone during the last couple of weeks to talk with five creatives of various stripes about what their typical work day looks like. Mostly friends, and friends of friends, these five cover a pretty broad spectrum: interaction design, writing, web, exhibit, and ID is in there; freelance, corporate, and consultancy; two of the interviewees are senior designers and one is a company co-founder. The results are predictably skewed, but a few themes prevail throughout -- see what you think:
Janna - Freelance Interaction Designer
"My workflow is very very random. I'll work at ten o'clock at night if that's what seems to be working, and I'll sleep in 'til ten am if that's what I need....I know there are people out there who need a schedule, but I am actually the opposite. I basically just need one thing a day, to get me moving. Usually it's an externally imposed deadline, but barring that, an event, a meeting, even getting together with a friend -- at least I know by 5pm I have to quit working, and that makes me productive....I think planning your 'negative' time is more effective than planning out the things you need to do."
"I know a lot of people find it useful to plan out what they do for the entire day, thinking they'll maximize productivity, but human brains don't really work like that. There are studies documenting the time people spend actually doing productive work, and even if they're working a ten hour day, nobody puts in ten hours, or even eight. It's more like five or six."
Chris - Novelist and Blogger
"To start with, I generally only work on weekdays, except when there's a major deadline coming up. Actually though, there's a sort of a daily deadline too: I write a blog post every day, and that's scheduled [ed note: an alarm goes off on his computer to tell him when. I've seen it happen.], so I usually make that. If I'm in the middle of a writing phase, I'll have a concrete writing deadline too. Like today, for instance, I have to write 1000 words; and I'm at 750 right now."
"I do sometimes goof off all day, and then write all 1000 words at 7pm, or, you know...wake up drunkenly and write them in the middle of the night, but not so often anymore."
"None of these quotas are external, by the way -- I figure out how much I need to have done at the two week deadline, divide that by the number of work days, and that's my daily word count. It's important to get that done, but just as important to not let yourself get ahead and then slack off for a day. There are all of these books on writing by successful authors, and the thing they agree on is that you have to write every day...I really came to this method after this period of complete chaos: I'd write 10,000 words, followed by three days of inaction. Stressful. And kind of panicky. I kept having to lie to my editors, and then keep track of the lies. Doing it with daily goals is much healthier; you get to tell yourself at the end of the day: 'I met my goal' -- that feels good. Failing every day really sucks."
Lyza - Web and Mobile Device Developer
"I'm a co-founder of the company where I work, so I hold to a pretty regular schedule: come in between 9:30 and 10, leave 6 or 6:30. Occasional weekends...I'd say it's a good day if I get 4 to 6 billable hours in."
"I prefer to work to deadlines, and these are usually client imposed. My work location is pretty flexible though -- I usually work one day a week off-site out of personal preference. I mean, despite the regular schedule, I'm not really a creature of habit, so being off-site improves my productivity."
Tracy - Museum Exhibit Designer
"Before, when I worked in a design agency, I got used to working with a producer who informed you of your schedule, and it was laid out far in advance. I got used to structuring my time around deliverables. But here at the museum there is no person named as producer; instead, I'm the person in charge of outlining my own schedule, and my team's -- so I typically start a new project off by setting up a timeline in Outlook. Since so much of exhibit design is getting things built and installed, all of these people are waiting for me to come up with something before they can do their jobs. There's an initial back and forth between me and those responsible for content development."
"Now, getting things physically made definitely happens within business hours. Everyone at the museum is officially on a nine to five schedule, but design people tend to work much longer. When a show is opening, we'll stay until midnight to get it ready. And when we're coming up with ideas, you're sort of working all the time. Ideas tend to happen at home, on my own time -- you can't really control that. I mean, you can block out time to brainstorm, but only a fraction of the concepts you use in the end are going to come from there. A lot of the construction is done by union guys: they work from 8 to 4 and they do not do overtime, so you have to structure your time around that."
"I had a design director in a previous agency job who was all about constant group contact: brainstorming sessions, presentations, group concept development, and hardly any individual work time. I can see her reasoning, but after a while it was counterproductive. When you have a working style forced upon you, it tends to reduce your productivity."
Steve - Senior Staff Industrial Designer
Despite running into each other several times over the course of researching this article, Steve and I were never able to set aside the requisite ten minutes to conduct a proper interview -- he's just too busy for that sort of thing. As I write this, Steve is making arrangements to fly to China again (he just got back from his previous trip a few days ago), either for market and user research, or to review tooling and supply chain. This is quite usual in his department, part of a large multinational electronics company. The extent of quotes I could get out of him on a typical work day was this:
"There is no typical work day. They're all different. All different."
If there is any consistency through these stories, it's one of duality: yes, scheduling is crucially important, and yes, the creative process is unpredictable. "Fortune favors the prepared mind" explained Louis Pasteur back in the 1850s, and he ought to know. Perhaps good design favors it too.
