Being a designer is great for all its worth. Design is potpourri of many fields that have that one thing in common — solving problems by translating user needs and business goals into tangible artefacts. You could be someone trying to understand why users still click the button they are not supposed to or someone who crafts custom size shoes. You could also be someone designing a cool illustration or someone who designs the layout of a home.

Design as a process to create great products & engaging experiences chariots on the wheels of continual ideation, execution, failure, and correction.

The life of a designer is coveted by many. I mean, why not? A designer is this super creative junkie with a freedom to create everything! They wear shorts to work, flaunting their MacBooks, sipping coffee while they travel around the world. This is the life everyone envies.

However, things are not always the way they are portrayed. A designer’s life isn’t an easy one.Growing as a designer is a tough rope to walk with deadlines, timelines and what-not trying to nudge you off balance.

The other side of the pixel coin

Relax! I’m not talking about another cryptocurrency here. I’m talking about about what goes on in designers’ life that is usually hidden from people. It is the dark side of the moon.

Picture this — you’re working at a project for days. Your workstation now reeks of dried coffee. Eyes puffed up as you longingly look at the mail, looking for any string of words with the meaning “ This looks good, let’s move it to development.”

You have put in months in this project. You haven’t slept well in days. Your attempts at sleep are ruined up by nightmares of missing a deadline, of another failed “iteration”, of another “approach”. The possibility of getting an approval look bleak and you seem to make no progress. At this stage, the source file, the change logs, have bloated to mammoth proportions. Sketch users — You have 8479349 copies of the same symbol. In other words…

You are sad, your workstation is sad, even the damn coffee mug is sad.

And then there are people who want more and more.

All this looks good, can we make the logo bigger? Can we nudge it just a bit left and further up ? I like the color used by Airbnb. Can we use the same ?

Let’s talk about the stress givers in the life of a designer.

Ideation

Have you ever banged your head for a good idea and then it magically appears when you’re in the commute to work? Sometimes, good ideas just don’t come! There are two types of thinkers — vertical and lateral. A vertical thinker covers depth and can just sit down in one direction, a lateral thinker can cover a vast variety of schools of thought and come up with a solution. While there are pros and cons for each, it is important to understand what category you fall under.

A vertical thinker covers depth and can just sit down in one direction, a lateral thinker can cover a vast varieties of schools of thought and come up with a solution.

Not coming up with ideas is punished. A good designer is someone who understands a problem, not someone who opens up a software and creates screens right away. Ideation is tough. Getting meaningful, useful ideas from teammates is tougher.

Deadlines

We have a bittersweet relationship with deadlines. Some like it. Some hate it. Some are driven by it. Some don’t have a choice. The problem is when people use that as a yardstick to determine a designer’s worth. This often gets people to be all stressed out about missing the deadline. Quality of work cannot be measured by the quantity of time put in. In other words, what seems like a simple change screen would take a lot of time.

In the end, deadlines exist. Whether we like it or not. It’s only how we deal with it that changes.

Feedback

What is design without feedback ? Imagine constructing a 110 storey building only to realize that the layouts are all wrong ? This is exactly what happens when you do not incorporate feedback into the design process.

Feedback is a subject by itself. But in a nutshell, the whole exercise of gathering meaningful feedback, making sense of it, and implementing changes is a tedious process. It also turns out to be the lifeblood of design.

Implementing Changes

What part of the feedback should I implement? Should I create a copy of this file? (In before — final_finally_bosschanges.sketch). “Can you pull up the version you showed on wednesday? I like the color you’ve used” *pulls hair in despair*

How do deal with Stress

While there are countless articles that talk about stress in general. Those apply to everyone out there. In addition to common things like reflection on your goals, spending time with friends and family, exercising gratitude, journaling, let’s talk about the intricacies of stress busting from a designers’ perspective.

Understand yourself

It goes without saying that understanding oneself is the best way to begin dealing with the stress at hand. What kind of a person are you ? Do you find solace in talking about your problems ? or are you someone who can eat the steam and push through? Are you a procrastinator who needs a deadline to execute or do you hate deadlines?

Design does not happen in vacuum! One thing that will help you throughout is building relationships with teammates. Conversations with teammates shouldn’t always revolve around work. Talk about interests, the life you have outside work , your aspirations! Building relationships goes a long way in growing as a designer.

Celebrate small wins * responsibly

We criticize ourselves too much. We share this with artists. We are just not satisfied. We always want big wins. This leads us to an abyss of dissatisfaction and longing for that one BIG win.

Submitted an important deliverable on time? Buy yourself a cupcake, or a book. Treat yourself for small wins even if no one else will. You have done great so far and your body needs that reward.

Does this mean you go out every saturday ? This is where the *responsible part plays in. Celebrating small wins is a great way to go as long as you’re not taking a mini vacation every weekend. The goal is to celebrate without affecting your work at hand. While a vacation burns your pocket and you arrive at work tired and unproductive, a book can actually help you give a new perspective.

Have a ”fun” side project

Okay, I’m already bogged down with a lot of work. How can I take up another side project? Here’s why you should have a fun project — no matter how crappy of a day you’ve had at office, you will have that one “win”, that “one good thing” waiting for you. It gives you a sense of accomplishment that you’re doing something extra, something more than others.

Personally my side projects have always been online courses. It’s an adventure to the unknown. I always have something different, something fun. It keeps me on my toes, I have something that I can give my best.

Talk to people outside your lake.

With constant deadlines and reviews, we often lose our sense of our own worth. Our worth compass starts pointing in all directions. Explain what design is to a developer or an intern, or someone outside work. This has a couple of effects.

You know your worth: Explaining things to people makes you realize your input can be valuable.I often amuse my friends with the things I observe and tell them about the apps they use daily. It’s an experience worth living. You spread design awareness: I still cringe when people ask me if UX design is about logos and changing document colors in MS Office. The whole exercising of explaining what design is challenges your mind. It reinforces your own understanding of what you do and more importantly, why.

“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” — Albert Einstein

Set the right expectations

What happens when the waiter brings you a cup of tea when you actually ordered a cup of coffee? It’s exactly the same as you setting up a design review for wireframes and your teammates expect high fidelity mockups. Setting expectations and meeting them goes a long way in building relationships and reducing churn.

Be clear on what you want to achieve and by when you want to achieve it. More importantly share the plan with the team. I’ve seen instances where 30 minutes of delay cascades into 4 hours of delay for the entire team. So watch out!

“Should I inform him of every small deviation from my timeline? ” The truth is that in most cases, it doesn’t hurt to over-communicate. And this is where most people go wrong — they are reluctant in sharing updates with the team.

You might be adding stress on someone

Stress is a two way street — people add stress on our lives and we inadvertently do the same. It’s important to be aware of our actions.It’s never too late to be a better human. We’re humans first, designers last. Here’s something you shouldn’t do

Don’t be THAT guy

Who gives feedback and action items for the sake of giving it. Giving feedback isn’t a measure of your worth. Working towards a goal certainly is. You could be making someone feel crappy about themselves for no reason, or worse just to satisfy your own ego.

Giving feedback isn’t a measure of your worth. Working towards a goal certainly is. You could be making someone feel crappy about themselves for no reason, or worse just to satisfy your own ego. Who wants to question things just because he can and wants to look smart. Who doesn’t like looking smart? There’s a difference between being one and looking like one. And in most cases, your peers will figure it out.

Who doesn’t like looking smart? There’s a difference between being one and looking like one. And in most cases, your peers will figure it out. “Is it done?”, “Is it done?”, “Is it done?”, “Is it done?”,“Is it done?”. Seriously, this sucks. ‘Nuff said.

All in all, growing up as a designer is a process. Being aware of what causes it is the first step towards making things better. In addition to that, there are ways to tackle stress. We should also be aware that we’re not adding stress on someone.

How do you beat stress? What dragons do you fight everyday? It’ll be great if you can share it with the community! Do comment them below