before i explain this graph right here does any of this sound familiar to you not being able to
create good and effective design ideas not having enough time to work in a day
and feeling burnt out and just really tired in general yep i myself have gone through all of
these things multiple different times over and over again and then i stumbled across this graph
that's just like the title suggests saved my graphic design career this graph shows the
percentage of tasks completed along the y-axis and then hours along a single day on the x-axis below
and as you can clearly see there is a steep uptick in productivity early in the morning
then a slight drop off around midday and i have a hack for this later and then a
slow decline around 4-5 p.m but why did this graph actually save my graphic design career
and sponsoring today's video is an absolute must for graphic designers it's where you can download
over 55 million resources in vat of elements learn more about that later in today's video
i just used to wake up and get on with things and do what i thought i needed to do that day
sometimes i would have a brief kind of list but that's about it as my workload increased i
found myself increasingly burnt out tired feeling like the day had too few hours and importantly my
creativity was being slammed into the ground and then there's a wonderful simple graph entered my
life now it seemed to me that the optimum time for creative design work and generating just
good ideas was from around 9am to 11 a.m and then again from 1 pm until 4 p.m cool but let's take
things deeper with more structure the graph shows a steady incline in productivity in the morning
so here's how i decided to organize my morning as a graphic designer
after i've taken a shower brush my teeth stretched a little bit and all that good stuff
i will sit down and focus on the less creative tasks that i need to do so that might be something
like answering emails organizing digital files that sort of thing i'm using this early morning
window to get the least creative tasks out of the way you know kind of mindless tedious things
it's also a really good idea to go over your plans for the day ahead more about that later but after
i've done that for one to two hours i will do a quick warm-up exercise i know i don't mean a
workout kind of warm-up so maybe just design a quick poster or manipulate a photo real quick
in photoshop just do something for 10 to 15 minutes that would be like a throwaway warm-up
exercise trust me this will help a whole lot now once you've warmed up it's time to tackle
the main design and creative side of your day it's important to note that i have found that quality
does override quantity and it works best it's better to spend less time on a design but for that
time to be really creative as opposed to spending more time on it and your design work being subpar
okay but what about this blip on the graph around lunchtime now this is likely where people stop for
lunch but for me personally i have a quick little hack the first thing i make sure that i do not do
at lunch is to eat fast digesting carbohydrates now these are things like white bread white rice
pasta and so on and now i stay away from these for a very good reason i bet you didn't think
satori is going to bring the nutrition tips in today's video fast digesting carbohydrates
spike blood sugar levels and this gives an instant boost of energy but that boost of
energy is short-lived and then what follows is a crash of energy which will cause a slump
in creativity instead i eat something that either has limited no carbs or something that contains
slow digesting carbohydrates secondly i get up and i move my body for at least 20 minutes now this is
important so that i don't become stagnant which actually makes people tired believe it or not
and after that it's back to the creative design work for me and that's up until four to six pm
depending on my schedule of course there are always going to be exceptions but this is what i
typically do in general terms at this time i will take a short break but i will then head back to
work soon after but it's not the kind of work that you might think i use this time to do something
very very important and that is to plan the next day ahead or sometimes the next few days ahead
having a list of the most important tasks i need to do and it being structured very very simply
means that i won't be wasting my time and i won't be thinking what do i do now what do i do in one
hour and so on i also use this time to tie up any sort of loose ends that i might have with clients
corporate sponsors or any other matters and for me it's actually really important to unwind
after a day of work and just simply relax if i take into consideration my graphic design work
my youtube stuff investing in trading and other things like selling digital products i easily work
50 to 55 hours every single week and that's just so you can gauge the kind of work i put in to get
to where i am today think about your own life your own energy levels and just your graphic design
routine and then look at the graph and see if you can rework your day-to-day routine to fit the data
and the peak times of creativity and productivity a hell of a lot of being creative is just simply
having the energy or the mental energy to do so if your energy levels are low then your creativity
more than likely is going to be low so yeah thanks to the sponsor of today's video envato elements
this is a great one-stop shop subscription service that i use personally on a daily basis now as you
can see here they've added over 94 000 new assets this week alone and there are over a quarter of a
million motion graphics downloads you can find a wide range of categories to look over such as
video imagery templates and even fonts as you can see here and let me tell you the font selection on
envato elements is vast and awesome but yeah you can also find things like website design templates
and app design templates too and you're never going to run into trouble either because you
own the rights to each download due to having a license when signing up for a paid subscription
and it works out to be less than twenty dollars a month for the annual plan
and when you consider how useful this website is and how many downloads there are it does work out
to be really cost effective and yeah you can check out envato elements linked down in the description
box below now if you want to learn something else about this wonderful world of graphic design
just click a video on screen and until next time guys design your future today peace