How Becoming a Parent Made Me a More Efficient Designer

Is it bad I can picture my baby as a tiny Vader? Photo by Daniel Cheung on Unsplash

I’m a new parent. As a parent with zero previous baby/child experience, I feel like you get to say you’re a new parent for at least 18 years (give or take) since every few weeks you just throw away everything you thought you knew and start over. And then before you know it, it’s been another year. Crazy.

I thought before becoming a parent that I would be at the top of my game creatively before kids, and that once I had my son it would get harder. Partially because of sleep deprivation, and also partially because somehow I would be this other person, and all my perspectives would change. I was concerned, and a little afraid, but also accepting of my new reality.

“By funneling my focus on what I needed to achieve and giving myself a non-negotiable deadline, I was able to remove doubt from the decision making process and instead rely on creative instinct, muscle memory, and the “have to haves” instead of the “nice to haves”. ”

It happened. I did become this other person, and my perspective did change. Suddenly, I could make decisions a lot faster. And then all the things that seemed sooooo important before became somewhat irrelevant and I was able to shift my focus onto the bigger picture. And another thing happened: I suddenly became extremely aware of time.

It was like I was Neo and I was finally realizing the real world beyond the matrix. I don’t want to speak for all parents here, but gone was the luxury of dawdling or procrastinating. If I had a task that came between me and the opportunity for sleep, I completed that task as quickly as possible. You would think that would mean a sacrifice in quality, but instead the opposite happened. By funneling my focus on what I needed to achieve and giving myself a non-negotiable deadline, I was able to remove doubt from the decision making process and instead rely on creative instinct, muscle memory, and the “have to haves” instead of the “nice to haves”.

Here are a few ways I’ve improved my efficiency as a designer (which work even if you don’t have kids):

Work from the Inside Out

When working on creative projects it’s very easy to spend a lot of time deliberating over the details. “Is that texture right?”, “Is the angle of that gradient cool or dated?”, “What is the right Pantone swatch for this? I’ll just try them all.”

Instead, work on the core concept first. Block out the shapes. Throw in the imagery. Capture the gesture of your idea and after the concept is correct, start working into the smaller details. And then remember…

Perfection Isn’t Possible

I think we’ve all heard this before, probably from exasperated friends and family members who see us obsessing over every pixel. But they’re right. Get your project to 80% satisfaction. Then leave it alone. Let it marinate at 80% instead of fussing with it endlessly. When you get back to it, if you have time, keep tweaking until your satisfied. Otherwise, get it in front of your client. Because chances are they needed this yesterday, and their feedback is going to be just as relevant whether or not you simplifyed the path one last time, or chose 90% black instead of 85%.

Big Impact, Little Effort

I don’t want to come across as saying that details aren’t important, because they are. Mastery can be found in details, and in a lot of ways those details are what got us in this line of work in the first place. But, design is a service and a timely one. Think about your projects as if the budget wasn’t only money, but also time. What could you do that would cost little but make a big impact? Is it designing boldly? Is it letting go of the “safe” options and instead only choosing to pitch the game changers? Curate your deliverables to make sure you’re not spinning your wheels on something they didn’t ask for or have no investment in. Sometimes it’s easy to get into a workflow where you are doing things just because you’ve always done them. Take a moment to question those choices and if they are still serving their purpose.

After all, Darth Vader always says: “Luke…work smarter, not harder.”