Planning Your Future

Hey Logo Geeks! Ian Paget here. I’m back with another podcast that’s created to help you make a living designing logos.

On this weeks episode I’m going to be sharing tips and ideas for planning and organisation, but before that I want to thank this weeks sponsor, The Perfect Match, a game where designers submit mood boards created using Adobe Stock assets… and if your amazing mood board design is chosen, you will be featured on Adobe's monthly live streaming game show with other talented designers, art directors, and creatives, where the winner goes home with $1000.

It's totally free to participate in The Perfect Match, and by simply submitting an entry, and Adobe will give you a gift for your time. To learn more, and to enter, visit theperfectmatch.co/logogeek‍

So it’s been a long time since I did a solo episode, so with it being a new year I thought I’d hit that record button, and share my personal approach for planning for life, and some of my own personal tips and advice for keeping organised.

Create a Long Term Vision

One of the most useful things I’ve found is to have a big long-term plan, so to design the life you want to have. That way, you know what you want from life, and can slowly day by day working towards it.

Without having some kind of long term vision, you’ll end up plodding along each day, and letting others decide your destiny.

An exercise I did several years back, and plan to do again over the coming weeks, is to create a future board. I bought a big pin board, put it up in my bedroom, then slowly collected together images of things I wanted in life.

So from a career perspective I’d pull together the type of work I wanted to do, and the type of things I wanted to see my self achieving. For example, adding pictures of doing talks at design events, and adding books, as a goal of mine is to write a book… all things at that time I wanted to do with my career. Here today, I’ve done a lot of those things, and almost finished that book too!

But I didn’t just include work things… I added the type of home I wanted to live in, how I wanted to dress, the family life I wanted, the places I wanted to visit in the world.

Seeing all this pinned up helped me so much, and actually changed my life more than I ever imagined it would. Simple things like holidays… rather than several cheap trips, I instead saved up and went to the places I actually wanted to go to! I dreamed of going to Cambodia, and seeing the incredible temples that inspired a lot of those seen in Toomb Raider… I managed to see them for myself, and tick a box on the bucket list.

And as buying a home was a goal, I also managed to get on the property ladder by relocating somewhere a little more affordable.

I think the important thing to note, with a future board, it can constantly change and adapt as you grow. The goals should be so big and incredible, that you can keep working towards them, but exciting enough so that you are driven to fulfil those goals. They don’t even need to be things you can do now… if you know you want to do it, you can at least start to figure out what you need to know so you can one day achieve that thing.

Its been several years since I created my last future board, and I was amazed that once I had some clarity how quickly I achieved almost everything on that board. It’s the very reason I want to do this exercise again, as I really do believe it was one of the most useful things I ever did for providing clarity.

Turning a Vision into a Plan

So now you have clarity of your vision, the big question is… how do you now reach that goal? Well… I recommend reading the book ‘The One Thing’. Definitely one of my favourite books.

You basically want to turn that goal and dream into a plan. Figure out what you need to do within the next 5 years to reach that goal. Now break that down into yearly goals. Now break that yearly goal into months. Then weeks. Then days. Then hours… and to now.

If there’s something you don’t know how to do, step one would be finding out how to do it. Signing up for courses, or networking in communities where people can provide help advice. Every single thing you see around you was created by a human being… that computer you’re working from now… that phone you’re using… all of what was designed by people… so just remember that anything is possible, you just need to dream it and work towards making that dream a plan. If you know what you want from life, you can achieve it by working towards it.

I always like to see your future vision as the top of a mountain. It feels a long way off when you’re stood at the bottom, but if you made a step towards the top, and did that every day, and remain on track, you will eventually reach the top of that mountain - it will just take time.

Just be cautious of distraction! That’s why I find it useful having your vision pinned to your wall. If it’s something that really matters to you, ignore everything else. Picture a distraction as a step in the wrong direction while climbing that mountain…

But like I said… if something interests you or excites you, and you want it to be part of your life and goals, then add it to the future board! It’s your future, and you have control over the destination you want to reach. The idea really is to never reach the top of that mountain… life is about the journey, not the final destination.

So now I want to discuss how I plan my time, but before going in to that I do what to thank the sponsor of this episode again, The Perfect Match, from Adobe!

As designers or creative we’re constantly presenting ideas visually to our clients. Most designers tend to create mood boards to help get across a certain feel, but how well does that actually communicate the intended messages? Do clients really understand the work we put in front of them?

That’s the goal of The Perfect Match. It’s a game where designers submit mood boards created with Adobe Stock assets.

Test your skills by assembling a brand-inspired mood board with Adobe Stock images to The Perfect Match, and if your moodpboard design is chosen, you will be featured on Adobe's monthly live streaming game show with other designers and creatives, where the winner goes home with $1000.

It's free to participate, and if you submit an entry, Adobe will give you a gift for your time.

To take part in the Perfect Match, and to learn more, Visit theperfectmatch.co/logogeek‍

Planning & Organising Your Time

So we’ve discussed the approach I like to use for long-term planning, but now I want to talk about day to day planning to achieve what needs to be done.

I’ve always got a mix of client work and personal work. I’d imagine that you’ll be the same.

Something I like to do is list all of these things down on paper. You might prefer to do this electronically, but personally I just like paper. I find it easier to plan, and I like the sheer satisfaction of crossing things off my list too - it makes me feel like I’m making progress.

I used to do this in a notepad, but now I use a ‘things to do pad’ which I found on Amazon. I can simply list the things I need to do, and when I’ve completed what’s on the list, I can tear off the sheet, put it in the bin, then plan my next few days.

Now often there’s a lot of things on that list and it can feel a little overwhelming, so there’s a couple of other things I do.

So first of all I will use Google Calendar to plan out my weeks. I do this really high level. For example, if I have a logo design project, and a web design project, I might simply block out a few days for one project, and a few days for the next.

Usually I will have 5-10 projects on the go at any one time, but I never do them all at the same time - I queue them up in my calendar. So if I already have time blocked out this week, the next project will be blocked out for next week. Having this visibility means I can inform any new client almost exactly when I will have initial designs ready to present - that way I set the expectation from the very beginning.

Note that I always like to allocate too much time, and intentionally leave some days blank. That way if a project takes longer than intended, or if I need to make amendments on another project, I can comfortably do that without stressing about not having time.

Another tool I’ll use to keep organise is Trello, which allows you to create columns, and have the ability to add projects that you can drag from column to column based on where you are with the project. Because I usually have several projects on the go, it can get a bit confusing when you’re waiting on feedback. So what I do is break the projects down into simple steps. For example, with logo design, this might be - Step 1, Send client proposal, Step 2, Prepare Project Brief, Step 3, Prepare Initial Designs, Step 4, Amendments, Step 5, Prepare Files, Step 6 Invoice the client.

So by Using Google Calendar, and Trello, I have a high level plan of what needs to be done and when, and have clear visibility as to the stage each project is at. That leaves my mind free to focus on work, and not get stressed working stuff out.

This also helps me to prioritise that long list of tasks we listed down. So what I like to do now, is take a highlighter pen, and pick out all the items I need to do TODAY in order to achieve what’s marked down on my calendar. This is usually one or two things only, and that means you can ignore everything else, and focus only on what needs to be done now. Once these things are done, you can them move on to other tasks, or start working on some of your own personal projects… or… and most importantly… you can finish working for the day, and enjoy time with family, or have a relain break!

I think a really important thing to remember is that you need to focus on what you want from life, and not let your work take over your life. It’s a mistake I’ve personally made so many times in my life so far… I often let work consume my time, and I forget the reason why I wanted to work for myself full time… so if you’ve finished your work… go enjoy your time. Enjoy your freedom. Spend time with your family, friends and loved ones… Make time for them.

So I hope this solo episode has been useful for you, and hopefully been inspiring to help you plan for the new year ahead!

If you want to discuss more stuff like this, would you like to join me, and a group of other driven motivated designers on a Zoom call every other week? If so, send me a message, as I’ve opening up the group to a handful of new people for the new year ahead. We usually meet every other Thursday at 8pm GMT. I like to keep the group small, so we can collectively get to know each other properly as friends - that we can provide ongoing motivation and support.

So that’s it for this week, but I’ll be back the same time next week for another exciting episode of the Logo Geek Podcast!