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How Web Designers Can Avoid Burnout

September 27, 2016 By Andy Clarke

Burnout is a real phenomenon that has affected the careers of thousands of designers over the years. One of the arresting aspects of it is that burnout can show up unannounced.

In other words, one day you’re fine and the next you’re wondering what you’re going to do with the rest of your life. Although burnout isn’t 100 percent preventable, you can reduce your susceptibility to it by making a few smart moves.

Four Proven Tips for Avoiding Burnout

Burnout sounds like a buzzword, but it’s also a medical term that features real symptoms and effects. As the Mayo Clinic defines it, “Job burnout is a special type of job stress — a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and the value of your work.”

It’s caused by such conditions as lack of control, unclear expectations, dysfunction in the workplace, lack of interest, little to no social support, and work-life imbalances. Here are four essential tips to help you avoid it.

Get Out of the House

If you work from home, you need to get out of the house and interact with other people on a regular basis … preferably every day. This is a critically vital way to prevent you from feeling trapped.

“One of the things I liked least about working from home for a long period of time was the lack of human interaction,” says Ciaran Mahoney of Dialpad, a leader in business communications.

“Depending on your situation, you may be able to go into the office a couple days out of the week. But if that’s not possible, you’ll need to find a way to get in some face-time so you don’t go insane.”

Don’t Overcommit

Overcommitting can often be at the root of job burnout. If you can learn how to pace yourself and schedule your projects and time in a way that suits you and your energy levels as well as productivity, you’ll be much better off.

For ambitious designers, turning down work can feel like a cardinal sin. But telling a client “no” can be an essential skill you should have. You don’t want to do it too often or you’ll ruin your reputation, but a well-timed refusal of extra work can protect you from a lot of unnecessary stress.

Hire People to Handle Small Tasks

You might have heard of the 80-20 rule. Also known as The Pareto Principle, this maxim states that 20 percent of your time/work/effort produces 80 percent of the results/revenue/success.

If you can identify this breakdown in your workload, you can then spend your time focusing on the 20 percent and hire other people to take care of the time-consuming 80 percent.

“You might know a few other friends who freelance and would like the extra work, or maybe even a few friends who have full-time jobs but would be willing to earn a little extra cash,” digital media expert Megan Sullivan says. “While you may want to do everything on your own, don’t underestimate the value of sending up a flare and getting a little aid.”

Pick Up a Hobby

It’s important for you to have activities to look forward to outside of work. Not only does this give you something to strive for and encourage you to work faster and more efficiently, but it also prevents you from spending every waking hour on your paid labor.

The best tactic is to pick up a hobby (or two). Find something that’s totally different from whatever you do during the day — preferably an activity that forces you to step away from the computer — and invest in it. You might be surprised by how much more engaged you feel when you return to work.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

Burnout can happen to anyone, so it’s vital for you to do everything you can to put yourself in a position that empowers you to stay engaged and enthused. There will probably always be days when you don’t want to work, but you can ensure they are fewer and farther between if you create a system that works for you.

Multiple Monitor Love

June 8, 2009 By Lorraine

For years, I resisted switching to multiple monitors. I’ll just buy a larger monitor, I thought- surely one huge screen was better than having to give up precious desk space for all those extra machines?

Now, of course, I can’t imagine not working without my multiple monitor setup. Here’s why:

Different spaces for different things. Forget OS X’s spaces- having multiple monitors gives you the real thing, baby! Design apps over there, games over here, social networking apps there… particularly good if, like me, you’re a little bit OC.

Faster testing. Testing new websites and designs on various browsers has always been my least favorite part of my work process. Being able to have Safari open in one monitor, Firefox in another, Chrome in another, etc. really speeds things up.

Better overall productivity. Ultimately, if you’re a multi-tasker, you’ll adore the possibilities that a multiple monitor setup will give you. All that switching from window to window, and dragging from here to there, on a single monitor setup really does add up- and I’ve found that I get more work done in less time with a multiple monitor setup.

Do you use multiple monitors? Are you considering adding another monitor to your setup?

Magnetik

April 16, 2007 By Devlounge

Contact Name: Doug Steinberg
Email: [email protected]
Company Name: Magnetik
Site URL: http://www.magnetik-nyc.com
Location: Cheslea | NYC

Job Description:
Do you spend your free time checking out the latest hot sites? Do you have an opinion on whether ajax or flash is better for user interfaces? Can you crank out killer designs in the time it takes other people to sit down at their desks? If so, you may be just who we’re looking for.

MAGNETIK, a growing advertising and marketing agency in NYC is seeking a designer to work mostly on web projects, but you should also be able to work in the real world without panic. This is a freelance position with opportunity to become a long term contract or full time position.

On any given day, we’re churning out retail print ads, html emails, landing pages, flash banners, enterprise-level sites and more for some of America’s top brands.

Programming skills are a big plus, but not required, though you must have an in-depth understanding of flash and html from a capabilities and usability perspective. A knowledge of AJAX techniques and the latest JS goodies is also a big help.

We’re in midtown Manhattan and only interested in people who can work on site. DO NOT apply if you’re not able to work in-person, though we may consider a candidate who can come in for briefings/presentations but wants to work remotely on occasion.

If you’re interested in this opportunity, please email us a resume, salary requirements and samples/URLs of your work. You will not be considered if you don’t send us all of these items.

Portfolios – What I’ve Learned

February 19, 2007 By The Team

Welcome to another addition of my column, which has yet to be named. I must apologize before I go into this column. For those who remember, I released a previous column a few months back, and like various other columnists appeared to drop off the planet. Unfortunately, a few issues in life came at me un-expectantly and I had to deal with them, while working on my freelance projects. You need to take life as it comes, and deal with it the best way possible and sometimes certain things are set on the back burner, while more pressing issues are attended to. Now that these issues have been resolved, I am hoping to get back to something I enjoy.

Now that I have apologized, I would like to get into more pressing matters: The creation of a portfolio. For those of you who are experienced, successful web developers and designer this will be old and repetitive I am sure. However, I thought I would pass long what I have learned so far.

Portfolio 1: Under the Sea

This was my first attempt at a portfolio. It was a required piece for school and at the same time was acceptable, considering what I knew. Of course, things have changed, and I look now and there are about a dozen things I did wrong. One of the most obvious is the photo I selected to represent myself. It was a year old, still had a time stamp, my fiancée is in it, it’s at a dance, and I’m drunk. As you were to continue to explore this portfolio, you would learn I used a star wars light saber affect on the rollover of portfolio items, simply because it sounded cool at the time. The pieces that I provided were not easily accessible, and believe it or not, I didn’t even link to my websites shown. In the “About Me”, I was more focused on announcing my official status with my fiancée (although in fairness, I had just gotten engaged at the time). However potential clients and hires, didn’t want to know and didn’t care that I wanted to own my own business, support my family, and live comfortably. They wanted to know my knowledge, employment history, my past experiences, and my education. None of the three I mentioned. The closest I came was saying I was growing fond of flash. Although I did alright on the project, I must say I am glad I never took a point to show that to future employers.

Portfolio 2: Plain, Simple, Effective

Although I probably designed half a dozen portfolios after the last one I showed, this was the one I decided to go with in the end. I’ll admit it certainly did the trick for me. About four months had passed since creating underwater themed portfolio and I decided to take a new approach. Implementing a far more simple design, I decided to focus on what I had to offer at the time. This worked out well for me, getting me my diploma, as I sailed through the Portfolio review, as well as landing me three jobs, including my current one. Of course, this layout, being a year old, has it’s own flaws I can see now. The home page was almost too bland. As I looked at it now, it really doesn’t give too much impression as to what I can do. I provided to sentences, and then my name. It doesn’t exactly force a user to get interested. Also, the contact information followed the same trend. It actually provided less information and accessibility then the former portfolio. I didn’t even provide a mailto link. Then again, it was only minor as the “About Me” was much better this time, not focusing on my personal life, and instead my current web goals and aspirations. Although I touched on previous unrelated jobs, it was done in a manner to show my determination and my ability to showcase hard work. The Portfolio section itself was done far better then my previous site, allowing better user interaction, as well as the ability to actually view my sites! To this date, this is still, in my opinion, one of the better portfolios I’ve done. I’ve thought of only updating this version to show case newer work, however I feel like I have grown past what I have here, and wanted to push myself both design-wise and code-wise.

Portfolio 3: Current…. Disappointment

This is my current site, which I can’t say I am too proud of. As it stands right now, I currently don’t even have a portfolio properly listed. As with most designers, when we run out of time, and have various projects on the go; we ignore our stuff first. This site is a result of that. Due to the rush of things, I don’t even show it to potential clients. I’ve made a list, and went with that instead. Embarrassing? The content is solid, I had three people, two English majors, review it and make sure it all checked out. The coding was solid, as I’ve been told on a few occasions it’s even blackberry accessible. It’s the little things that I don’t like. I feel like the text looks out of place on the home page. I should have used an sans-serif based font. The resume should be up to date, and a pdf instead of a cut together jpg of two print screens. My portfolio should have been finished. I should have taken more time on the articles section. I should have made the Quote Form work properly, instead of basic text. There’s a lot I wish I’d done, and didn’t. That’s why, even with my busy schedule, I am forcing myself create a new portfolio. (That and career advancements).

Portfolio 4: In the Works

I won’t go into details regarding these two layouts today, as I plan to save this as another column in the future. I will, give you a quick idea of what was going through my mind. My past projects, I found to be a little “bland” and I wanted to jazz it up, pushing myself to think of a new creative way to represent myself. I made sure all my portfolio items were present right away, while following a theme that made sense to have them there. As I said, this project will be another column.

Final Thoughts:

I know, I more so, just reviewed what I’d done. However, I am hoping you did pick something up.

One of the first things I ever learned was that content was important. Your portfolio needs to show you in a serious, professional manner, and not just someone who loves what you do. I know that sounds harsh, but people want to know what you have to offer, and what you’ve done in the past. They don’t care about how much you love it.
Simple is the safest route. I know, a lot of the time, you hear about needing to push the envelope. However, in my opinion, you need to pick when and why. This is your career, it might look cool to some, but if it’s too busy or complicated, you risk losing more clients and work.
FINISH WHAT YOU START!!! As designers, we set our stuff aside most of the time. When it comes to your portfolio, you need to find time. Right now, I have six freelance projects on the go. I kept putting my portfolio off, and now I am risking potential full time work and more freelance work as a result.
Be creative. I know, I also said keep it simple, but you need to find a way to mix the two. Without it, you can be bland, and boring. Unfortunately, I know a lot of people who keep it too simple, and their sites lack a professional feel, and don’t allow them to show off their other talents. If you don’t have the “design ability”, I would recommend hiring someone, because odds are your programming abilities would make most jealous.

I hope this helps at least one person in the future. Good luck with the portfolios!

Essentials: Successfully Managing Clients

February 1, 2007 By Devlounge

Managing multiple clients can be one of the most challenging topics, especially for designers just starting out. Even with my years of experience, I still find client management to be a tough issue to get a hold of. In the last of our Essentials series I’ll outline some of my own strategies for prioritizing clients and deciding what projects to accept and what projects to ignore or put on the back burner.

The Issue: When there’s too much on your plate

Every web designer strives to have a constant flow of work, which also means a consistent flow of income. Many times we find ourselves pressured into accepting more work then we can handle, simply because the prospect of payment is so tantalizing. This isn’t so much the case with full time designers, because design is their work, so they’re used to having clients pile up and working multiple high-end projects at the same time. Meanwhile, us freelancers who may have other jobs and obligations may be tempted to accept more work than we could ever accomplish in a specific amount of time.

Don’t Eat too Much

The first and probably most important step to successfully managing clients is to never take on too much work. I myself tend to go through spells where I’ll get absolutely no work requests, followed by a period of email after email asking me to do this and do that. I ran into this situation just last week as I was attempting to find a few small jobs I could do after my exams. I scoured through job boards and forum posts, but every potential project was either too involved or too simple for my liking. I knew I didn’t have much time, so I didn’t want to commit to work I couldn’t get done, because we all know how damaging unhappy clients could be.

That same day I received two emails out of the blue asking me to take on full-scale design projects. It was decision time. I decided to handle things one at a time, and get a feel for the projects first before I decided what one I would attempt to tackle first.

Prioritize

Once you figure out what projects you plan on going forth with, the next step is to prioritize. If you get multiple requests around the same time period, get in touch with the potential client and gather some more information on a particular project. Note how extensive a particular project might be, the deadlines you’d need to hit, and your own estimation on how quickly you’d be able to get the work completed. You may have someone email you early in the morning saying “I need an illustration done”, and in the evening you find yourself with a request for a “robust cms backend site”. While on paper (and in the bank) the larger project may seem better, if you have the ability to take on both at the same time, get the illustration out of the way first so you can focus more time and effort on the largest project. First come first serve isn’t always better either. Just because Client A contacted you first doesn’t mean that it’s Client A’s work that will be completed first.

Don’t be afraid

While having a positive attitude is always a sticking point for landing clients, so is being able to confront them about possible schedule issues and work out alternative plans. Not every client will have a strict deadline, but if you do not ask, you will never know. Don’t be afraid to get in touch with clients and ask how important it is that this is completed by day “x”. If a client doesn’t have a particular schedule that needs sticking to, you can easily move around other clients and put ones with looser time tables on the back burner for a while.

When things come up

And finally, sometimes you find yourself running into a wall and getting jammed on one specific project that becomes the focus of all your time and effort. It’s important to never leave your clients out to dry. Keep them in the loop with updates on other client work, and if you’re forced to pull out of their work request because you’re simply too busy, make sure you let them know promptly you they have time to begin a search for a new designer. In the end, whether you do the work or not, the client will be much happier that you worked things out with them and came right out to announce things, instead of putting them off until last minute.

Your Turn

Have your own thoughts on managing many clients at once? Share them in the comments, the more tips the better it will make everyone here. It is late, so I’m sure I could have missed key points, so feel free to point them out.