7 Habits That Help Designers Work More Effectively and Creatively

The new year is always the perfect time to reflect, adjust, and add to the habits that help us grow. For designers, in addition to honing their design skills, building healthy habits is also important to work more effectively and creatively.

Have you ever felt like your design work has stagnated and there are not many breakthroughs? Or sometimes you feel stressed because of deadlines and overwhelming feedback? If so, this is the time for you to refresh yourself with good habits, helping to improve your performance and creativity at work. Let's take a look at the habits that Designers need to equip themselves with for the new year!

1. 7 Habits to Help Designers Flourish in the New Year

2.1. Practice Creative Thinking Every Day

Creativity is not an innate ability but the result of regular practice. As a Designer, you not only need to design beautifully but also need to have flexible aesthetic thinking, know how to create breakthrough ideas by practicing creative thinking:

Observe more, get inspired by life, nature, art, technology.
Participate in design challenges like the 30-day design challenge.
Find inspiration from platforms like Behance, Dribbble, Pinterest.
Learn to ask the question: "How can this design be better?"

2.2. Learn New Skills

The design world is always changing, technology is developing more and more. A Designer cannot only know Photoshop or Illustrator but also needs to supplement skills in UI/UX, Motion Graphics, 3D, Web design...

Skill upgrade suggestions:

UI/UX: Learn Figma, Adobe XD to design professional interfaces.

Motion Graphics: Get familiar with After Effects to create motion effects.

3D Design: Explore Blender, Autodesk Maya to add depth to your products.

Online learning platforms: Udemy, Coursera, Domestika, Skillshare are great options!

Aim to learn one new skill every month, no matter how small, that will help expand your future career opportunities!

2.3. Building a Scientific Workflow

Have you ever encountered a situation where deadlines are tight, design files are messy, and clients are constantly making changes? That's a sign that you need a more professional workflow!

Tips to optimize workflow:

Use Notion, Trello, ClickUp to manage tasks and projects.

Create a design checklist to avoid mistakes.

Learn to prioritize work and avoid wasting time on unnecessary things.

Set reasonable deadlines to avoid stress from work overload.

2.4. Practice Communication and Teamwork Skills

Designers not only work with images but also have to communicate with customers, marketers, developers... A beautiful design that does not convey the right idea is still not effective.

How to improve communication skills:

Learn how to present your ideas persuasively.

Practice giving professional, constructive feedback.

Listen to requests from customers/teams to understand real needs.

2.5. Health Care

Sitting for long hours in front of the computer can cause many health problems such as back pain, eye strain, stress... So don't forget to take care of yourself!

2.6. Smart Financial Management

Many Designers, especially freelancers, often have difficulty pricing their services. They work a lot but their income is not worth it, or they do not know how to manage their finances.

2.7. Stay Inspired

Working for a long time can easily make a Designer lose inspiration and reduce creativity. So how to always be full of ideas?

The New Year is a great time to make changes! These habits will not only help you become a better Designer, but they will also make your job more enjoyable. Start today! Pick at least one habit to implement this week. You will see the difference.